Mid-Term Break By Seamus Heaney: Poem Analysis

In Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break,” the speaker is a young teenage boy off at school, who receives information about his brother’s death. As the speaker arrives at his home he is greeted by his family, and friends mourning his loss with him. A few hours later the ambulance arrives with his brother’s body cleaned up, and bandaged by the nurses. The following morning he makes his way up to his sibling’s bedside to say his goodbyes. By analyzing the images and diction in the poem, a reader can come to understand the tone of mourning, numbness, and sorrow.
The speaker begins on a gloomy note, revealing that he is waiting in the nurse’s office; however we soon realize it is not because he is physically sick, but emotionally sick with grief. As he is waiting in the nurse’s office he is “counting bells knelling classes to a close,” (line 2). The poet is very specific in his choice of words when describing the school bells as knelling because this is typically the sound of a funeral bell. The rhythm and alliteration also reinforce the mournful tone to help foreshadow the bad news about to come. He then states that at two o’clock his …show more content…
The speaker does not identify with the corpse, because he finds it hard to connect with his brother’s lifeless body. He remembers his sibling full of life and energy, but this cold, stiff physique is completely alien to him. His injuries were “stanched and bandaged” (line 15) by the nurses before he had arrived at the house. The following morning the speaker makes his way up to his sibling’s room where “snowdrops and candles soothed the bedside,” (line 17). The snowdrops and candles are a symbol of life, and also to comfort not only the deceased boy, but his family as well. The alliterations used in this line create a soothing and relaxed language which is abruptly halted when the speaker’s eyes meets the boy’s body for the first time in six