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Mid-term Break
BY MICHAEL WOODS
MID-TERM BREAK
The subject of this poem is the death of Seamus Heaney’s younger brother, Christopher who
was killed by a car at the age of four. It is a tremendously poignant poem and its emotional
power derives in large measure form the fact that Heaney is very muted and understated
with respect to his own emotional response. He chooses to focus more upon the reaction of
his parents in order to convey the shocking impact of the death of their little boy. Usually,
we must careful not to assume the “I” in a poem is, in fact, the poet. In this case, though, we
may be sure that Mid-Term Break is purely and intensely autobiographical.
This beautiful lyric poem is certainly enormously moving. It presents an elder brother having
to deal with a terrible trauma. As is frequently the case with Heaney, there is an arresting
amalgam of manliness and tenderness in the writing that lends it both warmth and
astringency at the same time. This poem is powerfully moving because of its emotional
restraint and control of tone. Heaney concentrates on observed details and it is the
accumulation of these details that helps to make the poem so memorable.
An elegiac tone is established at the beginning of the poem. An elegy is a poem written to
commemorate a dead person who is traditionally resurrected in a benign landscape. Here,
though, the little boy is recalled with clarity and realism; Heaney finishes with the rueful and
terrible equation “A four foot box, a foot for every year”, which starkly conveys the shocking
loss of a young child.
The poem opens with a line that might easily describe any child but the second line
introduces a darkly foreboding atmosphere:
“I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.”
The word “knell” is appropriate in the context of a poem about death because it is the sound
of a funeral bell. We do not normally associate school bells with death but this day was to
prove horrifically different for the poet. The rhythm and alliteration also reinforce the
mournful tone. The ‘c’ an ‘l’ sounds, as well as the internal rhyme of “bells” and “knelling”
help to suggest both the idea of finality and of time seeming to slow down. The poet is
driven home by his neighbours and not his parents, another unusual event preparing the
reader for the idea that something is terribly wrong. The fact that Heaney remembers the
precise time, “two o’clock” is convincing as we all tend to remember precise timings when
recalling traumatic, like changing events.
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Stanza two concentrates on the poet’s father’s emotional response who is “crying”. Heaney
tells us that his father “had always taken funerals in his stride” but this death is unnatural as
well as personal. The be bereft of a little child is unbearable for the normally rock solid
father who would, we assume, be the sort of man to offer words of comfort to others just as
“Big Jim Evans” offers his to Heaney’s family in “saying it was a hard blow.” (line 6) There is a
terrible double meaning in the phrase “hard blow” because Jim Evans, by referring to the
emotional impact of Christopher’s death, also unwittingly uses language that recalls the
impact of the car that killed him.
The third stanza presents us with another contrast, the baby’s innocent joy at seeing his
elder brother. Remembering the title of the poem, we might be tempted to hope, along with
the Heaney family that this event is some terrible nightmare that might be woken up from.
The baby’s normal behaviour, though, only accentuates the reality of the situation. From a
technical point of view, Heaney’s skilful use of the iambic pentameter helps to emphasise
the family drama that is played out in the poem. The baby’s innocent obliviousness to the
tragic circumstance of his elder brother’s return from school is captured in, “The baby cooed
and laughed and rocked the pram.” The bouncy emphatic rhythm is in direct contrast to the
opening stanza’s measured pace. The unusual aspect of the situation is developed further in
lines 8-11 as the young Heaney is “embarrassed” by the proffering of sympathy from “old
men”. Their awkwardness is economically conveyed through their euphemistic use of
language in telling him that “there were sorry” for his “trouble” (line10). The sibilant
alliteration in “Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest” (line 11) captures the hushed,
muted atmosphere in the house.
Heaney goes on to concentrate upon his mother’s reaction to her little boys’ death who says
nothing but holds his hand in her own as she “coughed out angry tearless sighs” (line 13).
The implication here is that she has cried so much that there is nothing more to cry but
incensed by the driver’s failure to avoid her son. Line 14 begins with another precise time
reference and the reality of the family having to receive “the corpse”. This is the first time
that we know that the “trouble” is connected with.
The sixth stanza recounts the poet’s visit to his brother’s room. Heaney conveys the feeling
of being unable to name the reality of the situation:
“Next morning I went up into the room.”
(LINE 16)
He does not go on to say that this is where his little brother is lying dead. Instead the
surrounding details emphasise the atmosphere of quiet as the boys are reunited after “six
weeks”. The snowdrops and candles are symbolic of life but they are also ritualistically
funereal. The word “soothed” may be applicable to both the idea that the flowers and
candles are placed as a comfort to the dead boy but they are also for the solace of the
grieving family. Unable to articulate the reality of his brother’s death, the poet chooses to
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present his earlier self, noticing that he was “Paler” (line 18). Another flower image draws
attention to the apparently insignificant injury that had such a devastating effect, as well as
the fragility of life with which the poppy is traditionally associated:
“Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
A four foot box, a foot for every year.”
The description here becomes almost unbearably powerful because of the restraint Heaney
exercises. The young boy could easily be asleep but, tragically, it is only as if he were
asleep. He will never wake up again. The word “cot”, along with the earlier use of “pram” in
stanza three emphasises the unnatural eruption of death into the life of a family with very
young children. It also helps to highlight the horror faced by any parent who is predeceased
by a child. The final couplet is consistent in tone with the remainder of the poem. Heaney
chooses to add a single line stanza to complete the poem that has seven three line stanzas
preceding it. The effect of this is to present a terrible equation on its own, something that
stands out baldly and inescapably. Just as there are “No gaudy scars” visible on the poor
child’s body, so too there is no lurid concentration upon injury or any self-indulgent
displays of grief. The final line is, in a sense, “knocked clear” of the rest of the poem
through Heaney’s decision to separate it. There is a heartbreaking logic in the statement
that reminds us both of the small stature of the child and the brevity of his young life.
As a lyric poem commemorating a terrible event, it is difficult to imagine anything to
surpass it for control, truthfulness and austere reverential beauty.
Analysis
Quick revise
This poem deals with the death of a young child, who is only 4 years
old and how Heaney, as a child, reacts to this event.
In the opening stanza Heaney, as a child, is waiting in the sick bay at
school to be taken home. There is a sense of boredom as he counts the
bells waiting for classes to end. It is as if he doesn’t really understand
what is going on and would rather be in class.
The second stanza finds Heaney back at home, seeing his father
crying, which is surprising as ‘he had always taken funerals in his
stride’.
‘The baby cooed and laughed’ shows the lack of understanding, it
seems it is the adults who are most upset and the baby, innocent of all
knowledge, reacts normally, life goes on.
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Heaney, too, is embarrassed by the way ‘old men’ come to shake his
hand and say they are ‘sorry for my trouble’ showing his lack of
comprehension.
There is a sense of quiet throughout, with ‘whispers’ ‘tearless sighs’ as
a reverence for the dead. At this point it is still unclear who has died.
In the fifth stanza the corpse arrives in an ambulance. It all seems
quite clinical and emotionless here with the line ‘stanched and
bandaged by nurses’ reflecting Heaney’s lack of emotion or
understanding as a boy.
In the sixth stanza he goes up to the room full of flowers and candles
‘snowdrops’ a white flower representing purity, which is appropriate
given the age of the dead boy.
We are finally given a sense of identity here with ‘him’ mentioned.
Heaney describes him as ‘paler now’ than when he last saw him, six
weeks previously.
The penultimate stanza describes him in more detail with a ‘poppy
bruise on his left temple’ poppy a flower associated with the dead and
the red colour accurately reflecting the colour of blood and a bruise.
His bed is described using a simile ‘as in is cot’ to describe the bed like
a child’s cot as it is so small and he is so young.
It is likely that the boy is a young relative of Heaney’s, although this is
not clarified. It could be a younger brother. We learn the cause of death
is a road accident as ‘the bumper knocked him clear’.
The final line emphasises how tragic the event is as the coffin is so
small, showing the youth of the victim. The stanza is only one line and
nine words long to place a clear emphasis on how tragic and shocking
the event is.
Summary
A boy sits in the school’s medical area waiting to be given a lift home – the ringing of the
school bell further enhance the fact that he is waiting for something. When he finally arrives
home he sees his father on the porch, crying. The house is packed with neighbours and
strangers who offer their condolences. He notices his baby sister in a cot laughing and cooing
while his mother takes his hand – she is so overcome with anger and grief that she is unable
to cry. Later, the body of his younger brother arrives in an ambulance. The next morning,
when the house is quiet, the boy goes up to the bedroom to see his brother for the last time.
Theme
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‘Mid-Term Break’ is a first-person account of the experience of facing death for the first
time. This death is especially tragic as the dead boy was only four years old, and this is driven
home as we find out, by delving into Heaney’s past, that the incident in the poem actually
happened. As he confronts death for the first time he sees how it affects those he loves. In the
porch he meets his father “crying”, and later his mother holds his hand. She is too upset to
cry, instead she “coughed out angry, tearless sighs”.
There is also a sense in the poem that the boy has been forced to grow up by what has
happened. When he comes to the house we read:
…I was embarrassed/ By old men standing up to shake my hand…
In the next stanza he tells us,
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school.
As the eldest in the family, he is treated as an adult by neighbours and seen as a comfort to
the family. Since he does not shed tears like his father, or appear severely grief-stricken like
his mother, he emerges as the strongest character in his family.
Imagery
A mid-term break is usually associated with time off school, holidays and fun. The poem’s
title suggests a holiday but this “break” does not happen for pleasant reasons as we find out
that there is a death in the family.
‘Mid-Term Break’ is told over the course of three main parts. In the first the boy waits in the
college sick bay to be brought home by a neighbour, the reason for his father not collecting
him could be due to his family not owning a car (this was in the 1950s). The second occurs in
the family home where he meets his grieving parents, family friends and neighbours, who
have gathered for the wake. The final scene takes place the following morning when the boy
sees his little brother’s body laid out surrounded by flowers and candles.
In the opening stanza there is an ominous atmosphere as the bell is “knelling classes to a
close”, however at this stage we do not know what has happened.
The second stanza begins with the stark, sad image of the poet’s father waiting for him to
return:
In the porch I met my father crying
The patriarchal image of the father-figure in the 1950s is torn down here as we see his father
crying – we know now that something personal and terrible has happened.
His father, apparently always strong at other funerals, is distraught by his child’s death, while
“Big Jim” says that it was a “terrible blow”. The young Seamus is made uneasy by the
baby’s happiness on seeing him, by hand shaking and euphemisms “Sorry for my trouble”,
and by people whispering about him.
Inside the house, the boy notices his baby sister lying in her pram “cooing and laughing”;
too young to understand what has happened or to realise why the house is filled with
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strangers. Old men stand up to shake his hand, treating the young boy as a mature male
member of the family. The boy meets his mother who is in shock and too upset, even to cry.
Finally in the fifth stanza we learn of the cause of the tragedy: an ambulance arrives with the
bandaged body of his brother who was killed by a car:
At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse
In the last two stanzas the boy goes to the room where his brother’s body is laid out. This is
the encounter that the entire poem has been moving towards, the climax of the whole piece.
There is an almost peaceful feeling in the poet’s description of the room: “snowdrops and
candles” soothe the bedside scene. His brother is paler than he remembers, and the only sign
of his fatal injury is the “poppy bruise” on his left temple. The young boy sees his brother for
the last time and faces death for the first.
In the final image the poet compares the small size of his brother’s coffin with the shortness
of life:
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
A four foot box, a foot for every year.
Language
The sombre mood of ‘Mid-Term Break’ is established in the opening lines as the boy sits in
the college sick bay with nothing to do but count the bells “knelling classes to a close”.
Notice how the poet uses the word “knelling” instead of ringing. This gives us a hint of the
mood: the bell, which is bringing classes to an end, reminds the boy of a church bell
“knelling” for a funeral mass, and perhaps is forewarning him of the death he is about to
face.
‘Mid –Term Break’ is about death and naturally the mood throughout the poem is sombre.
The boy meets his father “crying” in the porch and his mother “coughed out angry tearless
sighs”. The shocked sense of sadness is lifted for a moment in the third stanza when the boy
sees his sister in her cot. She coos and laughs, too young to understand what has happened.
As well as this central feeling of loss and sadness in the poem, there is also an interesting
secondary mood. The boy feels awkward and uncomfortable at being expected to behave like
the “eldest” in the family and says:
…I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand
His brother’s death, as well as being a great tragedy, is a rite of passage for the boy. He is
treated as an adult and perhaps as a support to his parents in their terrible grief – he is the
only member of the family not crying.
In the final two stanzas the mood is heightened as the boy goes alone to see his brother’s
body. Heaney’s language now is much more poetic than it was when he referred to his
brother as a corpse: note the personal pronouns “him”, “his”, “he” – as opposed to “the
corpse”. The calm mood is shown in the serene picture of “Snowdrops/And candles soothed
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the bedside” – literally they soothed the young Heaney. The flowers are a symbol in the
poem, but also in reality for the family as a symbol of new life, after death. The bruise is seen
as not really part of the boy – he is “wearing” it, as if it could come off. Heaney likens the
bruise to the poppy, a flower linked with death and soothing of pain (opiates come from
poppies). The child appears as if sleeping, giving us a simile. The ugly “corpse, stanched and
bandaged”, becomes a sleeping child with “no gaudy scars” – dead, but, ironically, not
disfigured. The last line of the poem is most poignant and skilful – the size of the coffin is the
measure of the child’s life. We barely notice that Heaney has twice referred to a “box”,
almost a flippant name for a coffin.
The shock, sadness and confusion of the earlier stanzas give way to an almost peaceful, calm
feeling: “snowdrops/ And candles” by the bed soothe the boy. And finally, there is also a
great tenderness and intimacy as he looks at his dead brother for the last time lying in his
coffin.
Rhythm
“The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in…”
The quick pace of these lines make the poem seem more light-hearted for a moment as the
boy sees his baby sister in the pram. But when the poem returns to the room of mourners the
lines again become slow and heavy.
Structure
In stanza 5 there are instances of half rhyme (sigh/arrived) (corpse/nurses) however it is in
the final two lines of this stanza that the poet uses the only full rhyme found in the poem.
This helps bring closure to the poem and gives the ending a sense of finality, emphasising the
theme of death:
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
A four foot box, a foot for every year
The story is told in a very under-stated way. There are no vivid descriptions of displays of
grief; everything is very matter of fact. Even the title is understated; this is about the death
of a child but the title is simply Mid-Term Break – something that could cover totally
mundane events.
Mid-term Break
Ireland’s 100 favourite poems
Seamus Heaney
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The understatement is typical of Heaney and doesn’t mean there was no emotion, but
rather that extravagant language is superfluous in moments of such extreme tragedy. The
loss is so great that it needs no embellishment, and the poem gains so much of its power
from its simple approach in describing what happened.
The young Heaney has to wait all morning in his school’s sick bay waiting for his
neighbours to drive him home. The line “counting bells knelling classes” suggests the
tedium of waiting for the morning to pass but it also suggests funeral bells that will echo
later.
The next few verses conjure up the awkwardness of funerals where people have no words
to express their grief. Big Jim Evans says it was a hard blow, which seems a woefully
inadequate description yet reflects the way people may speak when faced with
indescribable tragedy.
Heaney feels all the awkwardness of a young boy suddenly being treated with sympathy
and respect by adults who would usually treat him as a child. In this time of sorrow, they
stand up to shake his hand and say they’re “sorry for his trouble”.
The reference to “poppy bruise” in the final verse creates a sense of frustration and
impotence that such a small looking blow could have such a devastating effect. The poppy,
of course, is a flower associated with death and remembrance.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear
The final lines are the most powerful in the poem.
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No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
A four foot box, a foot for every year.
We already know someone has died and with a four foot coffin we know it must be
someone young, In spite of these warnings, the final line still comes as shock, creating
intense emotion.
These last two lines are the only lines in whole poem that rhyme. The effect of the rhyme
is to bring a sense of finality, as in the finality of death.
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