The poem ‘Mid-Term Break’ by Seamus Heaney is a first person ballad concerning the death of a boy’s 4-year-old brother while he was away at boarding school, and the individual reactions of each of his family members towards the tragedy. Poet Seamus Heaney did well at taking the extremely heavy subject of a child’s death, and producing a substantially lighter poem that still resonated the right emotions for the theme of the poem. In my opinion, ‘Mid-Term Break’ can be broken up into three different sections.
The first of these sections includes Stanza 1, where the boy is still at school. The first section of the poem describes the main character waiting in the sick bay for someone to drive him home, which tells the reader that something bad has happened before the poem has begun, because the main character is being sent home because of some kind of misfortune or tragedy. The second section of ‘Mid-Term Break’ is the largest, and lasts from stanza two to stanza five. This section is also the darkest and most vibrant in imagery of the poem.
The second section talks about the boy being greeted by a house full of strangers after the death of his younger brother, and the different ways each of his family members are handling the situation. The tone changes from section one to a deeper, more sad feel, as the writer is describing things like the main characters father crying, and old men offering their condolences to a child. Stanzas two, three and four develop the storyline in the form of the writer leading the reader through the house, as the main character is made uneasy by things like his father crying, the baby laughing in the pram, and people whispering about him.
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Stanza five is where the poem begins to explain the tragedy, through the last two lines “at ten o’clock the ambulance arrived, with the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses. ” The third part of the poem is begins at stanza six and goes all the way until the finish. This part, for me, was the most emotional of the three, and really defines the theme and feel of the poem. The ending sentence of stanza six, “I saw him for the first time in six weeks, paler now… ” tells the reader that the boy had been away for an extended period of time, and in theory, didn’t get to say goodbye to his little brother.
The third section also ties up the poem, as it takes the storyline from the previous waiting at school to grieving with his family, and finishes with a simple explanation of the tragedy, and brief feeling of regret that the boy didn’t spend more time with his brother. A Mid-Term Break usually means holidays, time off school or fun, which is the complete opposite to the themes of the poem. Although the title suggests that the poem is going to be revolving around a holiday, the reader soon discovers that the poem is dealing with a much darker subject, a death in the family.
In the opening part of the poem there is a worrying atmosphere, which for me is clear through the line “knelling classes to a close. ” This line suggests that the main character hasn’t been made aware of what has happened, but leads the reader to imagine that whatever has happened, cannot be good. The second section is where the reader knows that someone has died, and that it is an immense heartbreak for the family. This is clear through the first two lines of stanza two, where the strong, solid fatherly figure of the boy is rendered distraught and upset by the tragedy, leaving the main character virtually helpless in his own grief.
The second section also starts to introduce the reader to the deeper meaning of the poem, which is the main character becoming an adult, as the main character is feeling uneasy, and partially numb, as he doesn’t know how to react to the situation as a child. The sentence “as my mother held my hand in hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs” also gives the reader an insight into just how shattered the family is after the death, as his mother is described as being ‘too upset to cry,’ and that the main character feels that he now has to step up, being the oldest child, and comfort his family as an adult.
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The final part of the poem is the boy goes to the room where his brothers body is being is laid out. This is the event that the entire poem has been moving towards, essentially the climax of the whole poem. The final stanzas of the poem emphasise how tragic the event is, by leading the reader to imagine the younger brother as a helpless, pure, and peaceful child. Through the line “He lay in the four foot box as in his cot,” the younger brothers youth and purity is better exemplified.
The imagery used in the third section of ‘Mid-Term Break’ is the ‘last goodbye’ when the main character goes to visit his younger brother, as he hasn’t seen him in six weeks. This ‘final goodbye’ is the peak of emotion in the poem, and takes the awkward subject of peace and gives it a form of peace and serenity. The final goodbye also refers back to the deeper meaning of becoming an adult, as the main character is not only saying goodbye to his baby brother, but also his childhood. Seamus Heaney’s choice of words in this poem is what made it so emotionally raw.
The central feeling of loss and sadness in the poem is expressed through phrases like “I met my father crying,” “angry tearless sighs” and “old men standing up to shake my hand. ” The phrase “I met my father crying” tells the reader that the main character feels as though his father had been transformed into a different person by the tragedy, and he was ‘meeting’ him for the first time. The lines “it was a hard blow,” “the baby cooed and laughed and rocked in the pram” and “whispers informed strangers I was the eldest” all add a second feeling of a certain awkwardness to the poem, which defines a child reacting to death brilliantly.
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The description of the dead brother at the end of the poem uses a warm and peaceful semantic field to contrast the previous emotions and feeling of the poem, and leave the reader with the idea that while the death of a child is ugly and horrific, that doesn’t mean that is the way the baby brother should be remembered. The grammatical features of ‘Mid-Term Break’ are used to emphasise the misery and numbness of death. The phrase “Counting bells knelling classes to a close” suggests that the writer is describing the knelling of a church bell rather than the ringing of a school bell, which refers to the idea of a funeral.
The whole poems use of first person view gives the main character a feeling of detachment and isolation, as he is describing other people’s reactions to the tragedy throughout the poem, but he never describes how he feels. This feeling of isolation is also reflected through the form of rift that the death has caused through the main characters family. The main character seems to be detached from his family upon arriving home from school as he notices people talking about him being away at school, and in the same line that “his mother held his hand in hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. The disconnection of the one sentence, split into two stanzas, shows the reader the disconnection between the boy and his mother, and his family in general. He does not feel the closeness or comfort of holding her hand; he feels a kind of awkward numbness to the situation and doesn’t know how to react. The final description of the corpse uses calm nouns and adjectives, instead of the gory description of the horrific accident.
For example, Seamus Heaney used expressions like “I saw him for the first time in six weeks, paler now,” “wearing a poppy bruise,” “he lay in a four foot box” and “the bumper knocked him clear” to leave the reader with the idea that the dead brother is nothing but a vulnerable, pure child. In ‘Mid-Term Break’ there is no concrete rhyme scheme, which says to the reader that the lack of rhythm makes the poem less optimistic and enjoyable. The general sounds of the poem are blank or free verse, therefore the poem tells the story without the use of rhyme.
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The free verse style suits the poem well, as the story being told is so raw with emotion and has such a sad feeling to it that the abrupt style of the poet tells the story well. This also meant that the one line at the end of the poem that did rhyme was emphasised even more. This line is important to the poem as it reflects the appalling subject of a four year olds death. The fact that he was only four stresses the tragedy the family if faced with. Seamus Heaney vividly represented a child’s journey into maturity through the form of a death in the family in ‘Mid-Term Break. The writer used the perfect combination of sounds, words and syntax to express how he felt during the series of events that occur for a child after a death in the family, and did well at letting the audience live through the experience. Not only did Seamus tell the story of a boy’s baby brother’s death, but he also explained the feeling of isolation and detachment that a child has to experience when his/her parents are struck with a tragedy. The poem leaves the reader with the feeling or idea that a child is isolated on his journey
