'Mid-Term Break' by Seamus Heaney

The poem deals with the death of a 4 year old boy
1. It is told through the eyes of the boy's brother (Heaney)
2. Describes how Heaney copes with the tragic death
In the opening stanza we see Heaney waiting in the sick bay at his boarding school
1. He was unaware of what has hppened and we sense he was bored
2. "I sat all morning in the college sick bay, counting bells knelling classes to a close"
The despair of the event and the trauma the family were going through was depicted by the boy's father crying on the porch
1. "In the porch I met my Father crying, he'd always taken funerals in his stride"
2. "And big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow"
Heaney, as he was only a boy at the time, was embarrassesd by the 'old men' approaching him to shake his hand
1. "I was embarrassed by old men standing up to shake my hand and tell me they were 'sorry for my trouble'"
2. Shows lack of comprehension for the situation
There's a sense of quiet throughout, as a reverence for the dead
1. 'Whispers'
2. 'Tearless sighs'
3. At this point, it is unclear who has died
In the fith stanza, the corpse arrives in an ambulance, where it all seems quite clinical and emotionless
1. "Stitched and bandaged by the nurses"
2. This is another example of Heaneys' lack of understanding as a boy
In the sixth stanza, he goes up to a room full of candles and snowdrops
1. Snowdrops are fitting given the age of the boy: white flowers represent purity
Heaney gives us a chilling image of the boy in the coffin
1. "I saw him for the first time in 6 weeks, paler now with a poppy bruise on his left temple"
2. Poppy is a flower associated with the dead
3. The red colour accurately reflects the colour of blood and a bruise
Simile used to describe the coffin
1. "He lay in the 4 foot box as in his cot"
2. He looked peaceful and at rest as the car bumper 'knocked him clear' upon impact
The final line emphasises how tragic the event was, as the coffin was so small, showing the youth of the victim
1. "A 4 foot box, a foot box, a foot for every year"
2. The line is left on its own, to place an even stronger emphasis on the shock and tragedy of the event

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'Mid-Term Break' by Seamus Heaney

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