Susco1
Bri Susco
30 September 2010
AP Literature
Vogt
“Mid-Term Break” by Seamus Heaney
“Mid-Term Break” by Seamus Heaney, describes how Heaney is feeling after his
four year old brother is killed in an accident. Seamus Heaney is a student is away at
college, he returns home on his mid-term break to bury his younger brother, Christopher.
Heaney uses imagery, metaphor, simile, and structure to create an ominous tone and
convey how Heaney was feeling at the time of his brother’s death.
In the beginning of the poem Heaney is still at college waiting for classes to be
over for mid-term break. Heaney uses diction such as “sick bay” to show how he is
isolated from his family at the school. While he is sitting in class he hears the “bells
knelling” as if for his brother’s death. Heaney must feel alone and lost, he is with out his
family in the beginning, the neighbors drive him home, home to a broken house hold with
out a brother.
In the second verse of “Mid-Term Break” by Seamus Heaney, Heaney is on his
porch at home, his father is there crying. Heaney must have been taken about by his
father’s break down; Heaney describes him as one who always took funerals “with a
stride.” This knowledge of Heaney’s father’s strength shows readers how he was effected
by his sons death.
Susco2
When he entered the home in the third verse, his is greeted by a cooing
baby. The mood of the room is morose and melancholy but the baby shows no emotion
only ignorant bliss of what is happening. The baby symbolizes life and how it carries on
even in the presence of death. When Heaney walks into the room he is also greeted by old
men who stand up and shake his hand, there actions embarrasses him.
In the fourth verse Heaney is approached by mourners and they him “sorry
for my [his] troubles.” The euphemism makes Heaney uneasy because he did not have
any trouble at all he was the one still breathing. Mourners whisper about him talking
about how he is the eldest, away at school, all the talk about Heaney makes him even
more uneasy. He sits with his mother and holders her hand; he paints a bitter and sad
image.
While he is holding his mother’s hand she is so angry and upset she can
not cry all she can do is “cough out angry tearless sighs.” The ambulance arrives with
“the corpse” “stanched and bandaged.” Heaney does not use personal pronouns in this
verse only corpse as if to separate his brother from his body, from the mangled lifeless
shell that is left. Heaney describes the corpse as “stanched and bandaged,” stanch literally
meaning to stop the flow of blood, paints an image of a mangled body of a boy who was
stitched up and bandaged by nurses, so he could be presented to his family.
The next morning he wakes up and goes into the room where his brother’s
body lay. Heaney uses softer imagery “Snowdrops and candles.” Snowdrops symbolize
new beginnings and hope, but they also represent death and it is considered unlucky to
pick them and bring them inside; which is both ironic and symbolic of the situation in
which Heaney finds himself. Heaney also says “I saw him for the first time in six
Susco3
weeks.” Heaney had not used personal pronouns until this stanza; also Heaney had seen
his brothers body the day before but he says that the next day is the first time he “sees”
him. The tone of this stanza is different from all the rest, before he is upset and angry,
and at in this stanza there is a shift where Heaney finds peace with his brother’s passing
and moves from anger to peace.
Heaney uses the metaphor “wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple” to describe
his brother’s appearance but also to symbolize eternal sleep, and death. Heaney says
“wearing” to describe the bruise on his brother’s face almost to separate it from his
brother as if it were not a part of him only an earthly appearance. In the second to last line
in stanza seven Heaney uses a simile to describe the coffin and how his brother lay in it,
“He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.” This verse makes the reader even sadder
because the line shows you how small the coffin is and it makes it seem like Christopher
is merely sleeping.
Upon reading the last line of the poem, “A four foot box, a foot for every year,”
you are taken aback. Death is hard no matter what but the death of a child is even harder
and when Heaney shows us bluntly it affects the reader. The last line is also shows that
Heaney is still bitter over his brother’s passing.
Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Tem Break” is an emotional and heartbreaking poem that
captures the reader and evokes emotions through literary techniques such as tone,
metaphor, and simile. Heaney also makes the reader feel what he felt through the mood
he created with his diction and word choice. Symbolism played a big role in the poem,
even though it was subtle it made the difference and changed the tone in some verses.
Susco4
“Mid-Term Break” is a poem that one cannot easily forget not only for its style but for its
mark on the heart.