mid term break essay structure

Mid-Term Break Summary & Analysis by Seamus Heaney

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

“Mid-Term Break” was published by Irish poet Seamus Heaney in his 1966 book Death of a Naturalist. The poem is about Heaney’s brother, who was killed by a car in 1953 when he was only 4 years old, and Heaney only 14. Personal and direct, the poem describes the unexpected ways his family’s grieves as they confront this tragedy. It also notes the way that grief may upset traditional social roles.

• Read the full text of “Mid-Term Break”

The Full Text of “Mid-Term Break”

“mid-term break” summary, “mid-term break” themes.

The Nature of Grief

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “mid-term break”.

I sat all ... ... drove me home.

In the porch ... ... a hard blow.

The baby cooed ... ... for my trouble'.

Lines 11-13

Whispers informed strangers ... ... angry tearless sighs.

Lines 14-15

At ten o'clock ... ... by the nurses.

Lines 16-18

Next morning I ... ... in six weeks.

Lines 18-22

Paler now, ... ... for every year.

“Mid-Term Break” Symbols

• Line 2: “bells”

• Line 16: “Snowdrops”

• Line 17: “candles”

“Mid-Term Break” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

End-stopped line.

• Line 2: “close.”
• Line 3: “home.”
• Line 4: “crying—”
• Line 5: “stride—”
• Line 6: “blow.”
• Line 10: “trouble'.”
• Line 11: “eldest,”
• Line 13: “sighs.”
• Line 15: “nurses.”
• Line 18: “now,”
• Line 19: “temple,”
• Line 20: “cot.”
• Line 21: “clear.”
• Line 22: “year.”
• Lines 1-2: “bay / Counting”
• Lines 7-8: “pram / When”
• Lines 8-9: “embarrassed / By”
• Lines 9-10: “hand / And”
• Lines 12-13: “hand / In”
• Lines 14-15: “arrived / With”
• Lines 16-17: “Snowdrops / And”
• Lines 17-18: “him / For”
• Line 8: “in, and”
• Line 12: “school, as”
• Line 15: “corpse, stanched”
• Line 16: “room. Snowdrops”
• Line 17: “bedside; I”
• Line 18: “weeks. Paler”
• Line 21: “scars, the”
• Line 22: “box, a”

Alliteration

• Line 1: “c,” “b”
• Line 2: “C,” “b,” “c,” “l,” “c,” “l”
• Line 3: “cl”
• Line 4: “m,” “m”
• Line 5: “H,” “h”
• Line 12: “A,” “a,” “a,” “m,” “m,” “h,” “m,” “h”
• Line 13: “h,” “a”
• Line 14: “A,” “a,” “a”
• Line 15: “b,” “b”
• Line 16: “S”
• Line 17: “s,” “s”
• Line 18: “F,” “f,” “s,” “P”
• Line 19: “p,” “b,” “h,” “l”
• Line 20: “H,” “l,” “f,” “f”
• Line 22: “f,” “f,” “f,” “f”
• Line 2: “e,” “e,” “o”
• Line 3: “o,” “o,” “o”
• Line 4: “I,” “y,” “y”
• Line 5: “a,” “a,” “i,” “i”
• Line 6: “i,” “i,” “i,” “i,” “a,” “a”
• Line 7: “a,” “au,” “a,” “a”
• Line 8: “I,” “a,” “I,” “a”
• Line 9: “a,” “a”
• Line 11: “i,” “i”
• Line 12: “a,” “a,” “a”
• Line 13: “a,” “a,” “i”
• Line 14: “A,” “a,” “i”
• Line 15: “a,” “a,” “a”
• Line 16: “o,” “oo”
• Line 17: “A,” “a,” “oo,” “i,” “I”
• Line 18: “i,” “i”
• Line 19: “o,” “o,” “e,” “e”
• Line 20: “o,” “i,” “i,” “o”
• Line 21: “au,” “o”
• Line 22: “ou,” “oo,” “oo,” “o,” “y,” “ea”
• Line 1: “s,” “ll,” “n,” “n,” “c,” “ll,” “s,” “ck,” “b”
• Line 2: “C,” “n,” “b,” “ll,” “s,” “kn,” “ll,” “cl,” “ss,” “s,” “cl,” “s”
• Line 3: “t,” “t,” “cl,” “r,” “r,” “r,” “m,” “m”
• Line 4: “m,” “m,” “th,” “r,” “r”
• Line 5: “H,” “h,” “n,” “n,” “r,” “n,” “h,” “s,” “r,” “d”
• Line 6: “d,” “b,” “w”
• Line 7: “b,” “b,” “c,” “d,” “nd,” “d,” “nd,” “r,” “ck,” “d,” “r,” “m”
• Line 8: “c,” “m,” “n,” “n,” “m”
• Line 9: “d,” “m,” “n,” “nd,” “m,” “nd”
• Line 10: “t,” “rr,” “t,” “r”
• Line 11: “rs,” “r,” “s,” “t,” “r,” “rs,” “s,” “s,” “t”
• Line 12: “m,” “m,” “h,” “d,” “m,” “h,” “d”
• Line 13: “h,” “r,” “s,” “t,” “r,” “t,” “r,” “ss,” “s,” “s”
• Line 14: “t,” “t,” “rr”
• Line 15: “r,” “s,” “s,” “n,” “d,” “nd,” “b,” “nd,” “d,” “b”
• Line 16: “S,” “d,” “s”
• Line 17: “nd,” “nd,” “s,” “s,” “d,” “e,” “s,” “d,” “s”
• Line 18: “F,” “r,” “f,” “r,” “st,” “t,” “s,” “x,” “s,” “P”
• Line 19: “p,” “pp,” “l,” “t,” “p,” “l”
• Line 20: “l,” “f,” “r,” “f,” “b,” “x,” “c”
• Line 21: “c,” “r,” “m,” “r,” “ck,” “m,” “c”
• Line 22: “f,” “r,” “f,” “t,” “f,” “t,” “f,” “r,” “r,” “y,” “y,” “r”
• Line 20: “He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot.”
• Line 19: “Wearing a poppy bruise”

Polysyndeton

• Line 7: “The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram”
• Line 20: “four-foot box”
• Line 22: “A four-foot box, a foot for every year.”

“Mid-Term Break” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• In His Stride
• Four-foot box
• (Location in poem: Line 1: “college”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Mid-Term Break”

Rhyme scheme, “mid-term break” speaker, “mid-term break” setting, literary and historical context of “mid-term break”, more “mid-term break” resources, external resources.

Seamus Heaney's 10 Best Poems — A list of Heaney's 10 Best Poems from the Telegraph—offering a good introduction to his broader work.

Heaney Restrospective — A critical appraisal of the poet's life and work, from Naomi Schalit.

Seamus Heaney's Life — A detailed biography from the Poetry Foundation.

Seamus Heaney Reads "Mid-Term Break" — The poet reads his own poem aloud for the Poetry Ireland Lunchtime Reading Series.

Heaney's Family on Life with the Poet — In an article for the Guardian Newspaper, Seamus Heaney's family reflect on life with Heaney.

LitCharts on Other Poems by Seamus Heaney

Blackberry-Picking

Death of a Naturalist

Out of the Bag

Personal Helicon

Requiem for the Croppies

Storm on the Island

The Tollund Man

Everything you need for every book you read.

Lit. Summaries

• Biographies

Exploring Seamus Heaney’s Mid-Term Break: A Literary Analysis

• Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney’s poem “Mid-Term Break” is a poignant reflection on the death of a young child. The poem explores themes of grief, loss, and the fragility of life. In this literary analysis, we will delve deeper into the poem’s language, structure, and imagery to understand how Heaney effectively conveys these themes and emotions to his readers.

The Poet: Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is one of the most celebrated poets of the 20th century. Born in Northern Ireland in 1939, Heaney grew up in a rural farming community and was deeply influenced by the landscape and people of his homeland. Heaney’s poetry often explores themes of identity, memory, and the natural world, and his work has been praised for its lyrical beauty and emotional depth. Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, and his legacy continues to inspire and influence writers around the world. In this article, we will explore one of Heaney’s most famous poems, “Mid-Term Break,” and analyze its themes, imagery, and language.

The Poem: Mid-Term Break

Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” is a poignant and emotional poem that explores the themes of death, loss, and grief. The poem is written in the first person, and the speaker is a young boy who has returned home from school to attend the funeral of his younger brother. The poem is divided into three stanzas, each of which explores a different aspect of the speaker’s experience. The first stanza describes the speaker’s journey home from school, while the second stanza focuses on the scene at the family home, where the speaker encounters his grieving parents and sees his brother’s body laid out in the room. The final stanza describes the funeral itself, and the speaker’s feelings of isolation and detachment from the other mourners. Throughout the poem, Heaney uses vivid imagery and powerful language to convey the speaker’s emotions and the sense of loss that permeates the poem. Overall, “Mid-Term Break” is a powerful and moving poem that explores the universal themes of death and grief in a deeply personal and affecting way.

The Theme: Death and Loss

Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” is a poignant poem that explores the theme of death and loss. The poem is based on the death of Heaney’s younger brother, Christopher, who died at the age of four. Heaney’s use of vivid imagery and powerful language creates a sense of sadness and grief that is palpable throughout the poem. The poem is divided into three stanzas, each of which explores a different aspect of death and loss. The first stanza describes the arrival of Heaney’s family members at the family home, where they are waiting for the arrival of the body. The second stanza describes Heaney’s encounter with his brother’s body in the coffin, and the third stanza describes the funeral and the aftermath of the death. Through his use of language and imagery, Heaney captures the sense of loss and grief that accompanies death, and he explores the ways in which people cope with the loss of a loved one. Overall, “Mid-Term Break” is a powerful and moving poem that offers a poignant reflection on the theme of death and loss.

The Tone: Grief and Sadness

The tone of Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” is one of grief and sadness. The poem is a reflection on the death of the speaker’s younger brother, and the emotions that come with such a loss are palpable throughout the piece. Heaney’s use of language and imagery creates a sense of heaviness and sorrow, as the speaker navigates the aftermath of the tragedy. The poem is a powerful exploration of grief, and the ways in which it can impact a person’s life.

The Structure: Free Verse

Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” is a poem written in free verse, which means that it does not follow a specific rhyme scheme or meter. Instead, the poem is structured through the use of enjambment, or the continuation of a sentence or phrase across multiple lines. This creates a sense of fluidity and naturalness in the poem, as if the words are flowing freely from the speaker’s thoughts and emotions. Additionally, the lack of a strict structure allows Heaney to experiment with the placement of words and phrases, emphasizing certain ideas or emotions through their placement on the page. Overall, the free verse structure of “Mid-Term Break” contributes to the poem’s emotional impact and allows Heaney to convey his grief and loss in a powerful and poignant way.

The Imagery: Visual and Sensory

Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” is a poem that is rich in visual and sensory imagery. The poet uses vivid descriptions to create a powerful and emotional impact on the reader. The imagery in the poem is not only visual but also sensory, as it appeals to the reader’s sense of touch, smell, and sound.

One of the most striking images in the poem is the description of the “poppy bruise” on the baby’s forehead. This image is not only visual but also tactile, as the reader can almost feel the softness of the baby’s skin and the tenderness of the bruise. The use of the word “poppy” also adds a sensory dimension to the image, as it evokes the smell and texture of the flower.

Another powerful image in the poem is the description of the “four foot box” that the speaker’s brother is laid in. This image is both visual and sensory, as the reader can imagine the size and shape of the box, as well as the weight and texture of the body inside. The use of the word “box” also adds a sense of confinement and finality to the image, emphasizing the finality of death.

Overall, the imagery in “Mid-Term Break” is a key element in creating the emotional impact of the poem. The visual and sensory descriptions help to bring the reader into the world of the poem and to experience the grief and loss of the speaker.

The Language: Symbolism and Metaphor

In Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break,” the language used is rich in symbolism and metaphor, adding depth and complexity to the poem’s themes. The title itself is a metaphor, referring to the break from school that the speaker is experiencing, but also hinting at the idea of a break in the speaker’s life. The use of the word “break” suggests something that is shattered or broken, which foreshadows the devastating news that the speaker receives later in the poem.

Throughout the poem, Heaney uses vivid imagery to convey the speaker’s emotions and experiences. For example, the image of the “poppy bruise” on the baby’s forehead is a powerful symbol of the fragility of life and the violence that can disrupt it. The use of the word “bruise” suggests something that is painful and temporary, but also hints at the idea of something that is damaged or broken.

Another important symbol in the poem is the image of the “snowdrops” that the speaker’s mother has arranged on the baby’s cot. Snowdrops are often associated with death and mourning, and their presence in the poem adds to the sense of sadness and loss that permeates the speaker’s experience.

Overall, the language in “Mid-Term Break” is carefully crafted to convey the complex emotions and themes of the poem. Through the use of symbolism and metaphor, Heaney creates a powerful and moving portrait of grief and loss.

The Setting: A Family Home

The setting of Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” is a family home, specifically the home of the narrator’s parents. The poem begins with the narrator being brought home from school by his neighbors, and he enters the house to find his father crying. The details of the home are sparse, but the emotions and actions of the family members within it are vividly portrayed. The home becomes a symbol of the family’s grief and the disruption of their normal routine. The setting of the family home is crucial to the poem’s exploration of loss and mourning, as it is the place where the narrator must confront the reality of his brother’s death.

The Characters: The Family Members

The family members in Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” play a crucial role in the poem’s emotional impact. The speaker’s parents are described as being “stricken” and “embarrassed” by the death of their son, while his younger brothers are “crying” and “sniffling” in the background. The speaker himself is detached and numb, unable to fully process the tragedy that has befallen his family. Through their reactions and interactions, Heaney paints a vivid portrait of a family in mourning, struggling to come to terms with their loss.

The Emotions: Shock and Disbelief

The emotions of shock and disbelief are prevalent throughout Seamus Heaney’s poem “Mid-Term Break.” The speaker, who is a young boy, is forced to confront the death of his younger brother. The poem begins with the speaker being taken out of school and brought home, where he is met with the sight of his brother’s body. The shock of this event is evident in the speaker’s inability to comprehend what has happened. He describes his brother’s body as “a poppy bruise” and notes that he “lay in the four-foot box as in his cot.” The use of the word “cot” suggests that the speaker is struggling to accept that his brother is truly gone. The disbelief is further emphasized when the speaker notes that his father is crying, which is something he has never seen before. The shock and disbelief that the speaker experiences are universal emotions that anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one can relate to. Heaney’s use of language and imagery effectively conveys the overwhelming emotions that come with such a tragic event.

The Impact: Cultural and Historical Context

Seamus Heaney’s poem “Mid-Term Break” is a poignant reflection on the death of his younger brother. The poem is set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a period of political and social unrest that lasted from the late 1960s to the late 1990s. Heaney’s work is deeply rooted in the cultural and historical context of Northern Ireland, and his poetry often explores the themes of violence, loss, and identity in the face of conflict.

Heaney was born in 1939 in County Derry, Northern Ireland, and grew up in a rural farming community. He was deeply influenced by the landscape and language of his childhood, and his poetry often reflects his connection to the natural world. However, Heaney’s work is also shaped by the political and social context of Northern Ireland, particularly the Troubles.

The Troubles were a period of intense violence and political conflict in Northern Ireland, characterized by bombings, shootings, and other acts of terrorism. The conflict was rooted in the division between the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland, and it had a profound impact on the lives of those who lived through it. Heaney’s poetry often reflects the trauma and loss experienced by individuals and communities during this period.

In “Mid-Term Break,” Heaney explores the impact of his brother’s death on his family and community. The poem is a powerful reflection on grief, loss, and the fragility of life. Heaney’s use of language and imagery is both subtle and powerful, and the poem has become one of his most famous works.

Overall, Heaney’s poetry is deeply rooted in the cultural and historical context of Northern Ireland. His work explores the themes of violence, loss, and identity in the face of conflict, and it has had a profound impact on the literary world. “Mid-Term Break” is a powerful reflection on grief and loss, and it remains a testament to the enduring power of poetry to capture the human experience.

The Literary Devices: Alliteration and Enjambment

Alliteration and enjambment are two literary devices that Seamus Heaney employs in his poem “Mid-Term Break” to create a sense of rhythm and flow. Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words, while enjambment is the continuation of a sentence or phrase onto the next line without a pause. In the first stanza, Heaney uses alliteration to emphasize the silence and stillness of the room: “I sat all morning in the college sick bay / Counting bells knelling classes to a close.” The repetition of the “s” sound in “sat,” “sick,” and “classes” creates a sense of hushed quietness. Heaney also uses enjambment throughout the poem to create a sense of movement and progression. For example, in the second stanza, the sentence “At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived” continues onto the next line, emphasizing the suddenness and urgency of the situation. These literary devices not only add to the overall effect of the poem, but also showcase Heaney’s skill as a poet.

The Poetic Techniques: Repetition and Irony

Repetition and irony are two of the most prominent poetic techniques used by Seamus Heaney in his poem “Mid-Term Break.” Repetition is used to emphasize the emotional impact of the events that take place in the poem. For example, the repetition of the word “knelling” in the first stanza creates a sense of foreboding and sets the tone for the rest of the poem. Similarly, the repetition of the phrase “a four foot box” in the final stanza emphasizes the finality of death and the sense of loss that the speaker feels.

Irony is also used throughout the poem to create a sense of tension and to highlight the contrast between the speaker’s emotions and the actions of those around him. For example, the fact that the speaker’s father is “crying” and “whispering” in the second stanza is ironic because it is not the speaker’s father who has died, but rather his younger brother. Similarly, the fact that the “old men” in the fourth stanza shake the speaker’s hand and tell him that they are “sorry for his trouble” is ironic because they do not truly understand the depth of his grief.

Overall, the use of repetition and irony in “Mid-Term Break” serves to enhance the emotional impact of the poem and to highlight the complex emotions that the speaker experiences in the wake of his brother’s death.

The Analysis: Line by Line

The opening line of Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” sets the tone for the entire poem: “I sat all morning in the college sick bay.” The use of the word “sick bay” immediately creates a sense of unease and suggests that something is not quite right. The fact that the speaker has been there all morning also implies that this is not a minor illness or injury. As the poem progresses, we learn that the speaker’s younger brother has died, and the use of the word “sick bay” takes on a new meaning. It becomes a place of waiting and mourning, a liminal space between life and death. The line also establishes the speaker’s detachment from the events that are about to unfold. He is physically present, but emotionally removed, a theme that is echoed throughout the poem.

The Interpretation: Multiple Meanings

One of the most intriguing aspects of Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” is its ability to be interpreted in multiple ways. On the surface, the poem appears to be a straightforward account of a young boy’s experience of his brother’s death. However, upon closer examination, it becomes clear that there are deeper layers of meaning at play. Some readers interpret the poem as a commentary on the fragility of life, while others see it as a meditation on the complexities of grief. Still others view it as a critique of societal expectations surrounding death and mourning. Ultimately, the beauty of “Mid-Term Break” lies in its ability to speak to readers on a variety of levels, inviting us to engage with its themes and ideas in our own unique ways.

The Significance: Heaney’s Legacy

Seamus Heaney’s legacy is one that continues to inspire and influence writers and readers alike. His ability to capture the essence of Irish culture and history through his poetry has earned him a place among the greatest poets of the 20th century. Heaney’s work is characterized by its vivid imagery, lyrical language, and deep sense of humanity. His poems often explore themes of identity, memory, and the natural world, and his unique perspective on these subjects has made him a beloved figure in the literary world. Heaney’s legacy is one that will continue to be celebrated for generations to come, as his poetry remains a testament to the power of language and the enduring human spirit.

The Criticism: Alternative Perspectives

While Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” has been widely praised for its poignant portrayal of grief and loss, there are also alternative perspectives that offer criticism of the poem. One such perspective is that the poem is too detached and emotionless, failing to fully capture the depth of the speaker’s feelings. Critics argue that the poem’s sparse language and lack of overt emotionality create a distance between the reader and the speaker, making it difficult to fully empathize with the speaker’s experience.

Another criticism of the poem is that it perpetuates traditional gender roles and stereotypes. The poem’s portrayal of the mother as a stoic figure who is unable to express her emotions is seen by some as a reinforcement of the idea that women are expected to be passive and emotionally restrained. Additionally, the poem’s focus on the father’s reaction to the death of his son, while largely ignoring the mother’s grief, has been criticized as a perpetuation of the idea that men are expected to be strong and unemotional in the face of tragedy.

Despite these criticisms, “Mid-Term Break” remains a powerful and widely studied poem, offering a complex and nuanced exploration of grief and loss. While some may find fault with the poem’s emotional distance or gendered portrayals, others may see these elements as integral to the poem’s larger themes and messages. Ultimately, the poem’s enduring popularity and critical acclaim speak to its ability to provoke thought and inspire discussion, even in the face of alternative perspectives and criticisms.

Mid-Term Break

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Summary and Study Guide

“Mid-Term Break” is one of the best-known poems by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney, featured in his 1966 debut collection Death of a Naturalist , published when Heaney was only 27. It describes the poet’s childhood memory of returning home from school following the death of his younger brother in a car accident. The poem’s use of regular stanza forms and tight control of meter mark it as a typical example of Heaney’s formalist style , which followed in the footsteps of earlier Irish poet W.B. Yeats (1865-1939), whose work frequently sought to marry deeply personal material with a tight formal control. However, Yeats’s poems are often highly emotive and sometimes mystical, while Heaney’s verse is more restrained, showing the influence of the English poets W.H. Auden and Stephen Spender—so much so that some Irish critics accused Heaney of being too keen to follow in the English poetical tradition. Yet Heaney always maintained a strong connection with Ireland, and in particular the rural areas he grew up in which provide the setting for “Mid-Term Break.”

Poet Biography

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Seamus Heaney was born in 1939 on a farm in County Derry, Northern Ireland, as the eldest of nine siblings in a Catholic family. He attended the local primary school until winning a scholarship to study as a boarder at St. Columb’s College in the nearby town of Derry at age 12. The event memorialized in “Mid-Term Break”—the death of his second youngest brother, four-year-old Christopher, in a car accident—occurred shortly after.

In 1957, Heaney went on to study English Literature at Queen’s University in Belfast. He became acquainted with the lecturer and poet Philip Hobsbaum, an early mentor who encouraged Heaney to hone his poems into what would become his first collection Death of a Naturalist (1966), which debuted to glowing reviews. After since qualifying as a teacher in 1962, Heaney taught in Belfast, publishing his second collection, Door into the Dark , in 1969. In 1972 he and his pregnant wife Marie moved to a cottage in rural County Wicklow, an experience that influenced the poems in the collection Wintering Out (1972).

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The 1970s saw increasing violence in Northern Ireland, as the Catholic IRA fought a campaign against the British army and Protestant paramilitary groups. Bombings and murders were frequent on both sides, with innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. In 1975, Heaney, his wife, and their three young children moved to Dublin. Heaney’s poems in the collection North (1975) address contemporary violence and violence throughout history, frequently focusing on forgotten victims—for instance, human sacrifices whose bodies were preserved in the peat bogs of Ireland and Denmark. The 1979 collection Field Work also addresses these themes, along with self-scrutiny about the purpose of poetry in a society that seemed to be becoming more and not less violent.

With an increasingly global reputation, Heaney was a visiting professor of poetry at various US universities, including Harvard, where he received tenure in 1985, though he continued to live in Ireland. After winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, Heaney grew increasingly conscious of the public and political weight of his position, and in the same year his poem “From the Republic of Conscience” showed his ongoing commitment to the peace process in Northern Ireland. In 1999, Heaney’s translation of the medieval epic Beowulf into English won him a surprise mass audience and was heralded as displaying masterful technique, gaining him his second Whitbread Prize. Heaney suffered a stroke in 2006; the poems dealing with this experience in his 2010 collection Human Chain won him the Forward Prize, the only major poetry prize he had not yet won. Heaney died at home in 2013, at age 74. His funeral in Dublin was broadcast live on Irish state television, a measure of the stature he had achieved as one of Ireland and the world’s most famous poets.

Heaney, Seamus, " Mid-Term Break " (1966). Poetry Foundation

The title of the poem “Mid-Term Break” alludes to the short holiday half way through a school term, and the poem’s opening lines identify the speaker as a school student listening to the bells ringing for the end of classes while he waits in a college infirmary to be taken home. There is no suggestion that he is ill however, and the arrival of neighbors to pick him up and drive him home, together with the sight of his father crying in the porch on his arrival home strongly hint that a tragedy has befallen the family.

After an awkward exchange with a man named Big Jim Evans, who says "It was a hard blow,” (Line 6) the speaker goes past a baby in its pram and inside the house where various “old men” shake his hand (Line 9), causing him to feel embarrassment. The speaker feels overly observed and the unpleasant center of attention, overhearing people whispering about him, saying to “strangers” that he was “the eldest” (Line 11). The speaker’s mother holds his hand, unable to say anything and instead reduced to “angry tearless sighs” (Line 13). Finally, the tragic cause of all these events appears in the form of an ambulance bearing the body of the speaker’s younger brother, “stanched and bandaged” (Line 15) after the car accident which caused his death.

At the start of the sixth of the poem’s seven full stanzas, we are told that a night has passed and it is the morning after. The speaker visits the body in the room where it has been laid out in accordance with Catholic funeral tradition, with candles and snowdrops by the bedside. The speaker closely observes the dead body of his brother, noting details such as the “poppy bruise” on his forehead (Line 19) and the small size of the coffin. The poem continues to dwell on this image, reminding us in the last of its 22 lines that the length of the coffin, four feet, is the same as the number of years his brother was alive.

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Mid Term Break | Summary and Analysis

Critical appreciation of mid term break by seamus heaney.

Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney is a poignant poem dealing with the themes of loss, family, suffering and attempts at coming to terms with reality. Inspired by the tragic death of Heaney’s brother in 1953 Mid-Term Break traces the complex events following the sudden death of his brother who was hit by a car.

Mid Term Break | Summary

The poem opens in  a first narration with the narrator “I” describing his situation. He is at the school infirmary counting the classroom bells when he is suddenly taken home by his neighbours. On reaching home, he sees his father crying. The house is visited by neighbors and old men are standing to shake hands with him. The ambience is replete with sorrow and grief. The speaker’s mother holds his hands and they wait till 10 o’clock when the ambulance arrives with the dead body. Next morning, he goes to the room and sees his brother for the first time in six weeks. He is lying in the four foot coffee, with a pale complexion and a poppy bruise on his left temple, resulting from the accident. The the poem ends in a very sad note : A four-foot box, a foot for every year.

Mid Term Break | Title of the poem

The poem Mid Term Break by Seamus Heaney has an ambiguous title which presents a gap between expectation and reality. Normally, one would expect the poem with such a title to deal with the joys of holiday or the relief at the term being over. However, this seemingly innocent title reveals that unlike any other mid term break, this one is going to be totally different from what has been widely expected by the narrator as well as the reader. The title hides more than what it reveals and by the end of the poem we come to know that what has been hidden by the title all this while is the unfortunate death of his brother.

Mid Term Break | Analysis

Mid- term break | stanza 1 & 2.

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. In the porch I met my father crying— He had always taken funerals in his stride— And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The poem opens in an intensely personal note where the speaker uses first person narrative to enter into the poem : I sat all morning in the college sick bay

The element of uncertainty is present at the beginning of the poem. We do not know the reason for his stay at the college sick bay. This uncertainty is compounded by the fact that it is his neighbours (and not his parents) who come to take him home. Notice the use of the ‘l’ sounds (bells knelling) and alliteration (classes to a close) which creates a languid atmosphere. In the second stanza, the speaker meets his father in the porch where he is crying. Big Jim Evans says it was hard blow. The image of a crying adult male is a rare sight in stereotypical behavioral expectations ( considering the patriarchal 50s Ireland ) thus revealing the gravity of the situation. This stanza also leads the reader to the realm of the family which is a major theme in the poem.

Mid- Term Break | Stanza 3 & 4

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram When I came in, and I was embarrassed By old men standing up to shake my hand And tell me they were ‘sorry for my trouble’. Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest, Away at school, as my mother held my hand

The baby cooes and rocks the pram when the speaker goes in. He is embarrassed to shake hands with the old men who are waiting for him. Notice the use of contrast between the indifferent, innocent, peaceful cooing of the baby and the palpable grief of the old men – two different kinds of people living through the different contrasting phases of the human condition. The men tell him they are sorry for his trouble. The strangers are informed in hushed manner that the speaker is the eldest son. His mother holds his hands and coughs out “angry tearless sighs”. The silent suffering is clearly felt in this stanza and the Mother’s fearless sighs bespeaks a certain attempt at toughening up against the tragedy. Also, note the use of the word “angry” which lends a certain sense of ambiguity: What is the mother angry at? The people? The situation ? Or, does it have something to do with the manner of death? Was it an accident or perhaps lapse of responsibility on the part of some adult?

Mid- Term Break | Stanzas 5 &6

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses. Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

The ambulance arrives at ten o’clock with the corpse “stanched and bandaged by the nurses”. Notice the use of the term ‘corpse’ provides a cold, neutral tone to the event highlighting the impersonal nature the body has acquired. Next morning, the speaker goes into the room where Snowdrops and candles soothe the bedside. Both are symbolic in nature, representing hope and warmth. Snowdrop, being the first flowers of the year represent transformation from winter to spring . One may regard the presence of these elements as the psycho- emotional aspect of the speaker’s mind : the expectation of hope on the part of the speaker despite the overwhelming evidence of a dreadful reality.

Mid- Term Break | Stanzas 7 & 8

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.

This poem makes ample use of enjambment, a literary technique where lines run into each other carrying the meaning of one line to the next. “Paler now..” from stanza six runs into ” Wearing a poppy bruise” in stanza seven. Similarly, “my mother held my hand” in the last line of stanza four merges with the beginning of stanza five “In hers and…” Enjambment is usually used to capture the rapidity of unbroken thought which, in this poem is also used to capture the rapidity of action, the whirlwind of sights and sound which overwhelms the speaker in a state of emotional turbulence. The speaker sees his brother for the first time in six weeks : his brother is tinged with pale complexion, wearing a “poppy-bruise” on his left temple. The use of flower imagery for the second time (after Snowdrops in Stanza 6) not only captures the red color of the poppy flower but also alludes to its opiate properties which is used to dull the senses and reduce pain. This interpretation becomes even more relevant when one considers that poppy was often used as pain reliever, something very necessary in the present situation. His brother lay in “the four foot box”, the sight of which is made even more poignant by likening the image of the boy in his coffin to the manner in which he used to lie in his cot . The bumper of the car had knocked his head clear, leaving no significant trace of the hurt. The poem ends in an alliteration which drives home the harsh reality of the premature death of his brother : A four-foot box, a foot for every year.

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Mid-Term Break

Seamus Heaney shares with us a sad memory from his childhood.

“… the most skilful and profound poet writing in English today.” Edward Mendelson (NYT Review of Opened Ground)

Seamus Heaney is one of  the most recognisable names in English-language poetry . It’s quite possible that you could hear his writerly voice as a child, study him as you get older (his poems are often anthologised or selected for GCSE and A Level study) and come to regard him as an old familiar friend through your adult life. Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 and turned down the position of Poet Laureate when it was offered to him,  possibly because he regards himself as Irish, not British : after lunching with the Queen he said, “I have nothing against the Queen personally”; but in 1982 he published the lines, “My passport’s green/ No glass of ours was ever raised/ To toast the Queen.” Before  his death in 2013 he wrote about Irish community life, people’s connection with the land ( Storm on the Island; Bogland ), politics and history (particularly The Troubles), his own rural upbringing and journey to becoming a writer ( Follower; Digging; Personal Helicon ). A recognisable Heaney trait is filtering subject matter through a child’s looking-glass lens. His most famous poems ( Death of a Naturalist  and  Blackberry Picking) are directly concerned with childhood, in particular the loss of childhood innocence as one grows older.  Mid-Term Break (from the collection  Death of a Naturalist , written in 1966) shares this theme, which it explores through recounting an experience from the poet’s own history; when Seamus Heaney was still a child, his younger brother Christopher was hit and killed by a car:

On first reading, apart from obviously being written in stanzaic form (which we’ll get to later) the poem is actually quite, well… unpoetic! In some respects, it’s more like a narrative in the way it tells the story of Heaney’s discovery of his brother’s death. The poem contains clear narrative features such as the building of suspense (see how the poem counts down time for us:  two o’clock, ten o’clock, next morning ), direct speech (‘sorry for my trouble’ ) and even brief  characterisation : I met my father crying – he had always taken funerals in his stride –  In a way,  Mid-Term Break is a narrative: it follows a well-worn narrative pattern called the ‘rites of passage’ by which a young person must leave the safety (and ignorance) of childhood and undergo a journey of discovery. Along the way, the child acquires special knowledge and undergoes a transformation, shedding the childish self like a snake sheds a skin and emerging as a new, older and wiser person. That’s why the poem begins in the  college sick bay , which represents the safe world of a child; soon the boy is taken home , where he must pass through various adult hands, all ushering him towards the place where he will discover the truth hiding at the heart of the poem. The  room in which he encounters his brother – and has his first experience of the reality of death – is the place where this awful knowledge is contained and it is no accident that he is left alone to experience his first taste of the adult world all by himself.

At the start of the story, though, the boy is unaware of what lies in store; both he and we, the readers, wonder what is happening to take him out of class and home from school early. There are a couple of clues:  knelling is a word used only to describe the sound of a bell; it is especially associated with bells that ring to proclaim somebody’s death. In a ‘rites of passage’ story, in order for a person to grow and change their childish self must symbolically die. As well as  foreshadowing  the death of the speaker’s younger brother, the bells he hears  c ounting down  c lasses to a  c lose also signify the death of his childhood and induction into the adult world.  Alliteration  plays a part here. Look at all those hard C sounds in the line above, and add  c ollege si ck bay and  two o’ c lo ck .  This kind of alliteration is known as guttural. Guttural is good at exposing negative emotions, and also resembles the ticking of a clock, counting down the time until the boy must experience the truth that is waiting for him.

When the boy arrives home he meets his father standing on the  porch . Here is an example of a ‘threshold’: a boundary between two ‘worlds.’ If the school represented a ‘safe’ place where he was sheltered and protected from hard truth, his house is the site of his revelation and the place where he will be exposed to the truth about how things are in the ‘real’ world. The  porch is the dividing line between these two ‘worlds.’ His father (and  Big Jim Evans ) function as symbolic gatekeepers. They know the truth, but do not reveal it to the boy, except through cryptic clues such as  it had been a hard blow, language that suggests concealed emotion and also echoes the accident that killed his younger brother. Instead they usher him inside, where he will be passed from hand to hand, until he reaches his brother’s bedside . At this point, he will be by himself and have to face the reality of the world alone. 

Just as in a good narrative,  perspective is a crucial reason why the poem works so well. The speaker’s youth and naïvete brings a touch of  irony into the poem. Each stanza gives more little clues, information hiding in plain sight, that the boy’s youth prevents him from fully understanding. But as readers looking in from outside, it’s relatively easy for us to piece together the puzzle at the heart of the story. The first puzzle-piece is probably the word knelling  in stanza 1. It’s the kind of word a young boy wouldn’t know (the adult writer uses it as he looks back on his childhood experience). In stanza 2 – embedded inside two  hyphens  as an extra detail – is the admission that the speaker’s father  had always taken funerals in his stride . In the third stanza old men stand up in formal way to  shake my hand , and in the fourth we can infer from the  whispers that  informed strangers I was the eldest  that something has happened to a member of the boy’s family. By the time the  ambulance arrived with the corpse most readers will be prepared for the awful knowledge of the boy’s younger brother’s tragic accident. 

Written about a childhood time when nothing in the adult world makes sense (you can almost hear the boy thinking, ‘Why are they whispering? Why are these old men standing up to shake my hand?’) the  voice of the speaker conveys Heaney’s thoughts and curiously detached feelings through this bewildering day. Interestingly, most of the  diction in the poem is cool, calm and collected, and the young speaker comes across as matter-of-fact above anything else. Read the poem again to try and find examples of emotive language – it’s tough, right? That’s not to say the poem isn’t emotional, but emotion comes more from the reader’s grasping of the situation than from the poem itself. The boy himself reports everything with simplicity:  stanched and bandaged is quite clinical;  I saw him for the first time in six weeks a simple matter-of-fact statement. The clinical, detached  tone aptly conveys the way a young boy might approach his first encounter with death. Too young to really grasp the significance of events, he reacts in a way that might even be construed as indifferent. 

Something the poem explores wonderfully well is the stoic, masculine way that men deal with their emotions, particularly grief. The speaker’s father had been crying, but the poem is quick to point out that normally he takes things in their stride.  Big Jim Evans is unable to use straightforward language when talking to the young boy and euphemises his feelings as  a hard blow .  Euphemism is language that is uses to disguise, or avoid, speaking hard truths and it’s again ironic that somebody  big, when faced with a harsh reality, finds it difficult to confront.  Old men stand up to shake my hand reveals how formality and custom are used (again by men) to manage difficult emotions. Whispers is an onomatopoeia that conjures the sound of people talking around him, even behind his back, but hesitant when it comes to admitting the truth. The mother, true to type, is permitted to cough out her angry tearless sighs . She has been exhausted by her outpouring of emotion: by contrast, the men keep theirs firmly shut away inside. A detail that throws the men’s stoicism into sharp relief is the mention of the baby who cooed and laughed in the pram. The contrast of such unknowing, innocent behaviour with the reserved and awkward behaviour of the adults only reinforces the formality of their actions.

According to the poetic tradition of the  turn , or  volta , at a certain point in a poem the focus shifts, the tone changes or a counterpoint is presented.  Mid-Term Break’s turn is disguised by form, hidden inside the fifth stanza. After the description of mother’s  sighs  our attention is taken away from the reactions of those gathered in the house and placed onto the ambulance, there to deliver the body of the speaker’s younger brother.  At ten o’clock is the subtle marker used to make this change. After this point, the poem homes in on the boy’s experience only and we are with him through the terrible walk up the stairs, into the room where his brother’s body is laid in state  stanched (like the more common ‘staunch,’ this word means to restrict the flow of blood; you can read it to mean ‘cleaned’)  and bandaged by nurses .  Assonance plays a part in this stanza: the letter A flows through the lines in all kinds of words such as a ngry , a mbul a nce a rrived , st a nched a nd b a nd a ged . Assonance helps manage the tension in the poem at this crucial moment – the boy is only steps away from entering the room himself and coming face to face with his brother after his awful accident.

Once he enters the site of revelation, the poem intensifies its use of imagery.  The evidence of his brother’s wound is described as a poppy bruise , the vivid red colour that flashes into our minds when we read poppy contrasts with the white images suggested by paler now ,   stanched and bandaged and  snowdrops (white flowers)  and candles soothed the bedside . Like the  knelling bells , this use of language comes from the older writer looking back on his childish persona. Look again at the word ‘soothed.’ Flowers and candles are  personified to have a calming effect on the scene, and we are invited to compare the ritual trappings of funerals with the formality of behaviour displayed by the men earlier in the poem. The votive candles have a particularly calming effect, bathing the scene in warmth despite the ‘cold’ setting and tone. Perhaps Heaney wants us to think that the objects in the room, the ritual ‘embalming’ of the corpse – like the words and behaviour of the people downstairs – are all bent to the same purpose: the dulling of grief in order to allow men to cope with, and display stoicism in the face of, this ‘unmanly’ emotion.

The importance of ritual is echoed in the poem’s form.  Heaney is a traditional poet, and his poetry gestures towards pre-modern times .  Mid-Term Break is written in unrhymed  tercets  (a tercet is a group of three lines) and Heaney employs  stanzaic form to echo both the rituals surrounding death and funerals, and to frame the procession by which the boy is brought from his school to the bedside. Try breaking the journey into stages, imagining him passing various thresholds along the way: he leaves the  college sick bay , passes through the  porch into the main house, and goes up to  the room . Each stanza narrows and focuses the boy’s journey until he reaches the  bedside , at which point the poem is at its most intimate: just the boy, his brother and us watching from the outside. The  repetition of  hands is a nice detail helping us to see that he is quite literally passed from hand-to-hand by various adults. He is taken by his neighbour, to his father, through a roomful of relatives and strangers (who  shake his hand ) to his mother (who  held my hand ). Finally, he visits the bedside where he is alone. The structure of this journey is like a mini ‘rites of passage’ story, taking a child from a safe, protected world and exposing him to the truth and danger of the adult world.   

Suggested Poems for Comparison

• Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney

If you liked Mid-Term Break , you’ll love Death of a Naturalist . The title poem from his 1966 collection (from which Mid-Term Break is taken), the poem’s speaker – Heaney as a child – witnesses an invasion of angry frogs who he describes as ‘the great slime kings.’

• Hide and Seek by Vernon Scannell

If you’ve ever played this childhood game, you might recognise what happens to the small boy in this poem – abandoned in the dark by those he thought were his friends. It’s a little taste of how things really work out in the real world, represented by the eerie way the empty garden seems to look back at him at the end of the poem.

• Little Red Cap by Carol Ann Duffy

It’s not only boys who go on rites of passage adventures. In this reworking of the classic fairytale ( Little Red Riding Hood ), Duffy imagines herself as the titular heroine, a person with whom it is not wise to mess!

Additional Resources

If you are teaching or studying  Mid-Term Break  at school or college, or if you simply enjoyed this analysis of the poem and would like to discover more, you might like to purchase our bespoke study bundle for this poem. It’s only £2 and includes: 

• 4 pages of activities that can be printed and folded into a booklet for use in class, at home, for self-study or revision.
• Study Questions with guidance for how to answer in full paragraphs.
• A sample Point, Evidence, Explanation paragraph for essay writing. 
• An interactive and editable powerpoint, giving line-by-line analysis of all the poetic and technical features of the poem. 
• An in-depth worksheet with a focus on   explaining stanzaic form .
• A fun crossword-quiz, perfect for a recap lesson or for revision.
• 4 practice Essay Questions – and one complete model Essay Plan.

And… discuss! 

What did you think of Seamus Heaney’s poem? Have you read any of his other works that you could recommend to people who enjoyed Mid-Term Break? How did you feel at the end of this poem – was the revelation a shock to you? Why not leave a comment, start a discussion or share your ideas in the comment section below. And, for daily nuggets of analysis and all-new illustrations, don’t forget to find and follow Poetry Prof on Instagram.

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A novelist, poet and lecturer at Akwa Ibom State University. He has a PhD in African literature from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

An Analysis of Seamus Heaney’s ‘Mid-term Break’

‘Miditerm Break’ is a deeply melancholic poem written by the Irish poet, Seamus Heaney, as a way of coping with the grief and pain associated with losing a loved one. Thus, ‘Midterm Break’ is a personal poem. A work of art is said to be personal when it is based on the personal experiences of its author. Heaney lost his younger brother Christopher during childhood in a road accident. ‘Mid-term Break’ is a narrative poem that recreates the sad moments following this loss based on the poet’s recollection or re/memory.

‘Mid-term Break’ is organised in eight stanzas. All the stanzas except the final one are rendered in tercets. The final stanza is just one line. A one-line stanza is called monostich. The poem is written in run-on-line or enjambment. It is also written in free verse. The first stanza goes thus: ‘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.’

 In the poem, the persona recounts finding himself in the sick bay of his school. It is obvious that the narrator is the poet himself. He must have learnt of the sad news and fallen sick with grief, hence his being taken to the sick bay. It might also be a practical routine to relieve him of school work and set him apart from the rest of the students for care and attention. The second line of the first stanza contains alliteration with the repetition of the voiceless velar plosive in ‘counting’, ‘classes’ and ‘close’. The word ‘knelling’ has an onomatopoeic texture and constitutes a pun as well. The bells do not only announce the end of classes in the school, it, by metaphoric extension, also announces the end of a life; in this case, the life of young Christopher. The stanza ends with the neighbours coming to collect the persona. This is one of the instances of abnormality in the poem. It should have been the parents coming for the boy.

In the second stanza, the persona has got home and seen the father crying. The assertion that the father has always taken funeral at his strides is ironic when paired with the first expression which depicts the man in tears. This contrast serves to highlight how painful this particular loss is to the man, so that he cannot help but cry. No wonder another character in the poem by name Big Jim Evans refers to the loss as ‘a hard blow’, an expression that constitutes metaphor in the poem.

The third stanza reads: ‘The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram/When I came in, and I was embarrassed/By old men standing up to shake my hand’. The first line of this stanza is a loose sentence and the entire stanza is presented in paratactic style. The description of the baby’s innocence deepens the mood of tragedy in the poem. The word ‘cooed’ is onomatopoeic as it describes the sound made by a baby. Together with ‘laugh’, it constitutes auditory imagery which is very rich in the poem, as can be seen in words like ‘crying’ and ‘knelling’ in the first stanza. The word ‘rocked’ is a movement word and constitutes kinesthetic imagery, as well as ‘standing’ and ‘shake’. The act of old men standing up to greet the young persona is used to suggest the abnormality of the situation at hand. It is not an every-other-day situation. It is not normal for old people to courtesy a young person; neither is it normal for a boy to die while old people mourn him. It should be the other way round.

The fourth stanza of the poem continues from the third and recounts how the elderly mourners attempt to console the poor young persona. The occasion also provides an avenue for the family information or history/gossip to be passed round by the mourners: ‘Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest/Away at school’. This is an example of personification as ‘Whispers’ is imbued with a human attribute. The mother holding the persona’s hand denotes an attempt at either consoling him or comforting herself that she still has a child left in the world, or both.

The fifth stanza is equally a continuation from the fourth stanza. It presents a paradoxical situation as it indicates that the mother’s reaction to the loss is that of anger, tearlessness and sighs compared to the outright crying earlier reported about the father. The words ‘coughed’ and ‘sighs’ exemplify auditory imagery in the poem. The stanza uses visual imagery in reporting the arrival of the ambulance, which is a symbol of death and tragedy in the poem. The presence of words like ‘ambulance’, ‘corpse’, ‘stanched’, ‘bandaged’ and ‘nurses’ constitutes visual imagery which are drawn from medical or hospital register. The arrival of the corpse authenticates the story that the poem narrates. It is like the presentation of evidence to prove one’s account of an event. The word ‘stanched’, in the poem’s context, denotes the use of cotton to stop the flow of blood or the insertion of cotton in the nostrils of a corpse.

In the sixth stanza, the persona recounts going upstairs to the room where the remains of the younger brother are laid. The expression ‘Snowdrops/And candles soothed the bedside’ is an example of personification. ‘Snowdrops’ is a type of flower; in this case, it is a symbol of grief and mourning, as well as a celebration of the dead. It is used to pay tribute to the departed. The same interpretation goes for the candles. The persona states: ‘I saw him/For the first time in six weeks. Paler now’. The third person pronoun ‘him’ as used in the expression refers to the deceased. By this statement, it is clear that the brother has been away at school for six weeks during which time he was apart from his brother. Conventionally, midterm break takes place within the sixth and the seventh week of the term. It would appear that his has come a week too soon. It could also be that that the persona is going to use his midterm break to mourn his brother. The title of the poem could also refer to the temporality that signals the demise of the poet’s beloved brother. The idea of midterm break might suggest an abrupt interruption of the persona’s studies to mourn his deceased brother. The expression ‘Paler now’ is a sad euphemism because it describes the deceased’s complexion. Pale is the complexion of death and the dead.

The penultimate stanza is a continuation from the sixth stanza. It continues the description of the corpse. The expression ‘poppy bruise’ is another euphemism which describes the wound incurred by the late brother when the accident occurred. The word ‘poppy’ is an adjective and constitutes a visual imagery in the poem. The expression in the second line, ‘He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot’, is another tragic euphemism, as the phrase ‘four-foot box’ refers to a child’s coffin, which is compared to a cot, a child’s sleeping space. Thus, death is compared to the act of sleeping in this poem. The simile should not be lost on any reader of the poem. The last line of the stanza also uses euphemism to represent the brutal way the brother died: ‘No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear’. ‘The bumper’ is an instance of synecdoche as it represents the car that hit the deceased. The final monostich presents the numeric significance of the deceased’s coffin: ‘A four-foot box, a foot for every year’. Christopher was only four years old when he died. ‘Mid-term Break’ can thus be read as an elegy or a threnody.

Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995. He was born in 1939, the year World War II started. He died in 2013.

How does Seamus Heaney represent death and grief in ‘Mid-term Break’?

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Seamus Heaney

Mid-term break.

#IrishWriters

Other works by Seamus Heaney...

So winter closed its fist And got it stuck in the pump. The plunger froze up a lump In its throat, ice founding itself Upon iron. The handle

There was a sunlit absence. The helmeted pump in the yard heated its iron, water honeyed in the slung bucket

There, in the corner, staring at h… The cap juts like a gantry’s cross… Cowling plated forehead and sledge… Speech is clamped in the lips’ vic… That fist would dropp a hammer on…

The wintry haw is burning out of s… crab of the thorn, a small light f… wanting no more from them but that… the wick of self-respect from dyin… not having to blind them with illu…

Her scarf a la Bardot, In suede flats for the walk, She came with me one evening For air and friendly talk. We crossed the quiet river,

Up, black, striped and demasked li… At a funeral mass, the skunk’s tai… Paraded the skunk. Night after ni… I expected her like a visitor. The refrigerator whinnied into sil…

As a child, they could not keep me… And old pumps with buckets and win… I loved the dark drop, the trapped… Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss… One, in a brickyard, with a rotted…

I was six when I first saw kitten… Dan Taggart pitched them, 'the sc… Into a bucket; a frail metal sound… Soft paws scraping like mad. But… Was soon soused. They were slung…

We have no prairies To slice a big sun at evening— Everywhere the eye concedes to Encrouching horizon, Is wooed into the cyclops’ eye

As you plaited the harvest bow You implicated the mellowed silenc… In wheat that does not rust But brightens as it tightens twist… Into a knowable corona,

My “place of clear water”, the first hill in the world where springs washed into the shiny grass and darkened cobbles

And some time make the time to dri… Into County Clare, along the Fla… In September or October, when the… And the light are working off each… So that the ocean on one side is w…

My father worked with a horse-plou… His shoulders globed like a full s… Between the shafts and the furrow. The horse strained at his clicking… An expert. He would set the wing

The pockets of our greatcoats full… No kitchens on the run, no strikin… We moved quick and sudden in our o… The priest lay behind ditches with… A people hardly marching... on the…

Mid-Term Break

By seamus heaney, mid-term break quotes and analysis.

I sat all morning in the college sick bay Counting bells knelling classes to a close. Speaker

From the very beginning of the poem, Heaney hints that the speaker is preoccupied with thoughts of grief and death. The setting of the sick bay is a reminder of bodily weakness and, obliquely, death, though the speaker himself is not physically ill. The ringing school bells, meanwhile, evoke church bells ringing to indicate a death. These hints suggest that the speaker is dwelling on his loss, even if he does not speak of it directly. Meanwhile, Heaney's virtuosity with sound is evident here: the internal rhyme of "knelling bells," and the alliterative "C" and "CL" sounds, create a subtly dirge-like musical quality.

When I came in, and I was embarrassed By old men standing up to shake my hand Spealer

These lines suggest that the speaker feels ill-equipped to deal with his new role: that of a grieving but stable oldest child. Without his consent or awareness, he has assumed a new set of responsibilities, both to his family and to the wider community, who expect him to behave in certain ways following his brother's death. The speaker feels pressured and alienated by these rituals of grief, which cause him to become self-conscious and therefore to pay attention to himself rather than to his brother. It is only when he is able to encounter his brother in the absence of other mourners that he can truly think about the child's death and his own loss.

A four-foot box, a foot for every year. Narrator

The poem conceals the identity of the deceased up until its last line, suggesting that the speaker is too shocked or sad to name the loss, and that the other mourners feel uncomfortable speaking of it directly. Instead, the speaker slowly rules out potential losses by naming them one by one: both parents, for instance, are revealed to be alive. Only in the poem's last line does Heaney tell us the full extent of the loss, letting us know that a young child has been killed. Even here, the speaker's grief is understated, largely expressed not through words but through form. By setting aside the poem's final line in a stanza of its own, breaking the established pattern of tercets, Heaney indicates that the brother's death has made normalcy impossible.

Mid-Term Break Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Mid-Term Break is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Contrast the readers reaction of the two parents

Are you referring to the book Mid-Term Break?

Why was the boy embarrassed?

From the text:

I was embarrassed because the old men who'd come over to the house kept standing up to shake my hand.

What does the child learn in the poem?

I think the child learns a few things. He discovers the impermanence of life: his young brother tragically killed by a car. He also discovers how mourning is handled in different ways. Heaney’s poem is a portrait of the reality that there is no “...

Study Guide for Mid-Term Break

Mid-Term Break study guide contains a biography of Seamus Heaney, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Mid-Term Break
• Mid-Term Break Summary
• Character List