Mid-Term Break Poem

The poem “Mid-Term Break”, written by Seamus Heaney is about the death of the author’s brother and it shows how people reacted to this. It is written from the point of view of young Heaney, taken from school after his brother died. The poem successfully conveys Heaney’s sense of grief through various poetic techniques such as metaphor, simile and alliteration. It does not have a specific rhythm, but there is rhyme in the final two lines of the poem. There are seven stanzas with three lines per stanza.

The tile “Mid-Term Break” suggest a holiday of sorts, a time of enjoyment, but in reality the poem deals with a time of grief and emotion.

The first stanza starts by the word “I”, so we can see that it is written from his point of view and he feels isolated in the “college sick bay”. This suggests sickness and death. The word “knelling” is an onomatopoeia which shows the idea of funeral bells. “At two o’clock” shows how long he had to wait, where he had lots of time to think. The first stanza does not explain what is the reason for the break was, but his time waiting in the sick bay sets up a feeling that something is wrong.

In the second stanza, Heaney meets his father crying “in the porch”, and it is a sense that he was trying to hide his emotions, feelings. The words “he had always taken funerals in his stride” show that death has been experienced before, although not in this way. His father usually took “funerals in his stride’. It shows how devastating this tragic accident was for Heaney’s family.

In the third stanza, the baby is innocent and unaware of the events that are taking place, “cooed and laughed and rocked the pram”. By the words “i was embarrassed and “shake my hand” it is shown how Heaney had to take the role...

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...for every year”, onomatopoeia “bells knelling”, euphemism “sorry for my trouble” and repetition with the work “foot”. The author uses them add layers of meaning. Rather than simply stating the facts, authors hint at and disguise some of it, so the reader must figure thing out for himself.

The theme of this poem is death and the poem is a first-person account to the experience of facing death for the first time. As he confronts death for the first time he sees how it affects those he loves. It takes the audience along on the poet’s journey to accepting his beloved little brother’s death.

The message of this poem is to always be tough and emotionally strong when you are facing obstacles and tragedies in your life and to know how to handle this situations. Also, life must go on, even without the ones we loved and we must learn to accept that death is a part of life.