Mid-Term Break – Seamus Heaney

Theme/themes of the poem

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 fours years.
Imagery
What does the title, “Mid-Term Break” mean to you? Perhaps the
immediate answer is: school is out, no more lessons, no more
homework or nagging teachers. However, as we read this poem
we soon learn that this break is occurring because of a death in
the family because his younger brother has been killed in an
accident.
Mid-Term Break comprises three main episodes. In the first the
boy waits in the college sick bay to be brought home by his
neighbour. The seconds 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 a sense of foreboding 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”.

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We know now that something terrible has occurred. 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 strangers. Old men stand up
to shake his hand. In the porch he meets his father “crying”, and
later his mother holds his hand. She is too upset to cry, instead
she, “cough out angry tearless sighs”.
Finally, in the fifth stanza we learn of the cause of the tragedy: an
ambulance arrives with the bandaged body of his four year old
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 is body is laid out. This is the encounter that the
entire poem has been moving towards. There is an almost
peaceful feeling in the poet’s description of the room containing
the small corpse, “snowdrops and candles”, we are told, 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 his life: “No gaudy scars,
the bumper knocked him clear. A four foot box, a foot for every
year.
Mood
The sombre mood of Mid-Term Break is established in the
opening lines. The boy sits in the college sick bay with nothing to
do but count the bells “knelling classes to a close”. Notice how
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the poet uses the word “knelling” here 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. Mid-Term Break is about death and naturally the mood
throughout is sombre. The boy meets his father “crying”, and
later his mother holds his hand. She is too upset to cry, instead
she, “cough 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 the central feeling of loss and sadness in the poem,
there is also an interesting secondary mood. There is a sense in
the poem that the boy has been forced to grow up by what has
happened. 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”. 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 and
support to his parents and family in their terrible grief.
In the final two stanzas the mood is heightened as the boy goes
alone to see his brother’s body. 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.
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
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The rhythm of the poem also helps to reflect the sombre and
heavy mood conveyed. Listen carefully to the pace of the first
two lines: I sat all morning in the college sick bay counting bells
knelling classes to a close”. Now compare with the pace of these
lines from the third stanza: The baby cooed and laughed and
rocked in the pram when I came in…” The quick pace of these
lines makes 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 mourners the lines again become slow and heavy.
Language
Mid-Term Break is a structured poem: there are seven three line
stanzas followed by one single line at the end. Each line is
roughly the same length. There is no fixed rhyming scheme in the
poem and where rhyme does occur it is usually half-rhyme (two
words that share similar sounds but do not fully rhyme). In the
third stanza we have: “The baby cooed and laughed and rocked
in the pram when I came in and I was embarrassed by old men
standing up to shake my hand”. In stanza five there are instances
of half rhyme (sighs/arrived) (corpse/nurses). However, it is 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, emphasizing the theme
of death: “No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear/ A four
foot box, a foot for every year.
Alliteration (repetition of the same consonant sound one after
another) and assonance (repeated vowel sounds) are also found
in the poem. An example of alliteration occurs in the first stanza
with the repeated ‘C’ sound; “I sat all morning in the college sick
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bay/ Counting bells knelling classes to a close”. Alliteration also
occurs most memorably yet chillingly in the last line of the
poem; “A four foot box, a foot for every year.
Assonance is evident in the first stanza with the repeated ‘O’
sound: “I sat all morning in the college sick bay/ Counting bells
knelling classes to a close/ At two o'clock our neighbours drove
me home”. The repeated ‘O’ sounds helps to slow down the
rhythm to convey the sense of sadness and foreboding that exists
in the opening stanza.
Onomatopoeia (occurs when the word(s) used sound like what
they describe) is found in stanza three when describing the sound
the baby makes: “The baby cooed……” The use of
onomatopoeia here helps to contrast with the otherwise sombre
mood of the poem.
Finally, repetition is found in the final line of the poem: “A four
foot box, a foot for every year”. The use of repetition here helps
to bring closure to the poem and a sense of finality, emphasizing
the main theme of the poem; death.