The Lesson and Mid-term Break

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Introduction to The Lesson and Mid-term Break

"The Lesson" tells the story of a 10 year old boy who has lost his

father in the duration of school time. It goes on the say he's trapped

and although he feels grief for the death of his father he realises

that he can use the death to "bind the bullies' fist".

"Mid-Term Break" is about the loss of a brother. It goes on to say

that life goes on even though he has lost his brother and he witnesses

things he does not normally experience (his father crying).

"Mid-Term Break"

Meaning

The meaning of "Mid-Term Break" is to tell the story of an accident

involving a young child and a vehicle. He tries to explain how life

goes on and the death of the boy's brother doesn't mean that life

stops. It goes on to show that because his brother has died certain

things happen that he doesn't usually see "I met my father crying" and

" Old men standing up to shake my hand". It ends with the powerful and

chilling line "a four foot box, a foot for every year" This shows that

the boy was very young and had a small coffin because he was only 4

years of age.

Structure

The poems structure is very neat and very tidy. He chooses to write in

three line stanzas because this allows the poem to flow easily and

allows the stanza below it the link in with its predecessor. By also

having three line stanzas helps the last line have more of a "punch"

feeling because it breaks the mould.

Heaney avoids using rhyme in this piece because we usually associate

rhyme with happiness and glee. Because of this reason Heaney purposely

makes this poem sad and hopeless.

Analysing

The mood changes throughout the poem. At the start the mood is sombre,

sad and mysterious but when it reache...

... middle of paper ...

...death.

"Pride, like a goldfish, flashed a sudden fin": we can imagine the

goldfish swimming in their bowl, perhaps set in the sunshine on a

windowsill. The sun catches a goldfish at a certain angle, and the

gold of its scales suddenly shines brightly. The speaker, caught in

the sunshine of all this attention and sympathy, suddenly feels pride

shining in him.

At no point in this poem does the speaker express sadness at the loss

of his father. However, he is aware that he should feel something, and

his shame at the lack of feeling is in conflict with his relief and

his pride. What is uppermost in the speaker's mind is the confined

little world of the school (rather like the "shining prison" of the

goldfish bowl). His life is centred on school, the bullying, his other

school-mates.

I think the bitter lesson he learns is about his own self-centredness.

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