Mid Term Break

300 Words2 Pages
“Mid-Term Break” by Seamus Heaney is a poem which looks at the feelings and attitudes of a loss of a close relative using different techniques including alliteration, imagery and repetition. The poem starts by the poet sitting in a sick bay in the college, he is drove home by his neighbours, when he arrives home he meets his father who’s crying, and adult men saying they were, “sorry for his loss”. An ambulance arrives which is carrying the body of his younger brother, who had been hit by a car at just four years old, he’s dead. It takes time to take affect and the next day at the funeral, where he sees his little brother in a four foot box, a foot for every year. The first idea is associated with the title of the poem. When you think of a “Mid-Term Break” you usually think of happiness, fun and relaxation. “Counting … classes to a close” this suggests a countdown to the end of the school day, and into the holiday. This idea is quickly destroyed when it mentions the poet is sitting in the sick bay, this suggests something is wrong. There is a use of onomatopoeia that backs this suggestion up. “Bells knelling” these sort of belles are usually heard at or after a funeral. This gives the reader the idea that a funeral is near and someone has died who’s close to him. The fact that the neighbours have to pick him up also suggests the fact that there is something wrong with his parents, as they can’t come and pick their son up from school. The image that is his father crying tells us something major has happened as I’m sure it takes quite a lot to make an adult
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