Seamus Heaney's Poem 'Mid-Term Break'

Seamus Heaney 1939-2013

Seamus Heaney Seamus Heaney was born in 1939 in Mossbawn in County Derry Heaney was a poet, writer and lecturer Throughout his career as a poet, Heaney achieved great fame in Ireland and all around the world Heaney is now considered to be one of the best-known poets around the world

Mid Term Break by Seamus Heaney What do you think this poem is going to be about?

While studying in St.Columbs College in Derry city, his brother was killed at the age of four in a road accident Heaney s poem Mid-Term Break recalls this family tragedy Seamus heaney Heaney s early poetry deals with the world of his childhood In 1995 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature

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 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 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, 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 Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney

Mid-Term Break Stanza 1 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.

Mid-Term Break- Stanza 2 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.

Mid-Term Break Stanza 3 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

Mid-Term Break Stanza 4 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

Mid-Term Break Stanza 5 In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

Mid-Term Break Stanza 6 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,

Mid-Term Break- Stanza 7 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.

Mid Term Break Final Line A FOUR FOOT BOX, A FOOT FOR EVERY YEAR

The reader is unsure at first just what might unfold, after all, the title suggests that this might be a poem about a holiday, a chance to get away from school work and relax. Analysis Instead, we're gradually taken into the grieving world of the first person speaker, and the seriousness of the situation soon becomes clear.

The poem is incredibly personal and moving while at the same time analytical of the social setting The poem begins with the speaker stating that he is being quarantined within a sick bay of his college. The boy has suffered a loss, one which does not become clear until the final line of the poem.

There are many strangers around attempting to sympathise with the family, but their efforts appear awkward and are often unwanted. It focuses on the aftermath of the car accident that killed Heaney s younger brother.

There is anger, pure sorrow, and detachment that he observes in his family members. The death threw off the family dynamic and shifted the way that everyone responded to everyday events. The different figures in the poem respond to grief in different ways. The speaker of the poem, for instance, is deeply uncomfortable with the attention that people pay to him because of the tragedy, he is "embarrassed" by old men standing up to shake his hand.

Essentially, grief makes the world stop making sense This idea is shown towards the end of the poem when the speaker suggests that his brother s death was random, quick and clear. There s no reason or justification for it; it was simply an accident. And though the accident didn t leave any scars on the speaker s brother, it has clearly left a series of deep scars on the living

Imagery in MTB There is strong and highly emotional imagery in this poem. Without it the reader will likely leave the poem unaffected by what they ve read.

Analysis questions 1. What is the theme of this poem? 2. Choose one image from this poem and discuss how it relates to that theme. 3. Identify two poetic techniques in this poem. Explain how the use of these language techniques add to the poem. * Use PIE Method to answer

Poetic Devices

Persona: The persona is the speaker in a poem. Sibilance: repetition of the 's' sound in words close together

Tone : The tone in the poem is the mood or feeling within the text Symbol: A symbol is something within a poem that stands for something else

Rhythm: The rhythm of a poem is the pattern of sounds in the text. Rhyme: Similar sounding words within a poem.