The Worst Mid-Term Break Ever

A mid-term break during the long, very challenging college year usually creates a mood of joy. Mid-term break equates family hugs you have missed since you last saw mom and dad, home cooked meals, high school friends and simply relaxing. Judging from the title of Seamus Heaney's poem "Mid-Term Break" the poem would describe the typical going home experience of a college student. However, as soon as the speaker steps into his house he is greeted by feelings of grief. The separation from his family the speaker experiences while away at school has made him almost a stranger in his own home and he has a difficult time outwardly expressing the feelings of pain he is experiencing internally.

The speaker is at school and the bells are ringing signifying class coming to an end. The ringing bells foreshadow the life of the speaker's younger brother coming to an end. After riding home with neighbors before evening making his way into the house, the speaker meets his crying, grief filled father. "Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow." At this point in the poem the speaker specifies a funeral is occurring and Big Jim Evan's comment demonstrates the major impact the death has had on the family. While the young baby is oblivious as to what is happening, the speaker is embarrassed as he shakes the hands of old men. Heaney creates the image of people quietly whispering, behaving in the somber manner usually displayed at a funeral. The corpse is brought in and eventually the speaker makes his way to his younger brother's bedside. There his brother lies in a "four-foot box, a foot for every year". While sometimes deaths in the family, especially an unexpected death like that of a child occurs, members of the family unite to strengthen on another during the difficult time.

In "Mid-Term Break," Heaney illustrates with diction, imagery and symbols the distance between this young college student and his family. When the speaker arrives home, there are strangers in his home. Other people are already present to console his parents and yet he was away and most likely feeling embarrassed because he was unable to be present. In stanzas three and four the hands are referenced. In stanza three the speaker shakes hands with the older men and in stanza four he holds his mother's hand. Never does the speaker verbalize feelings surrounding the child's death. While in the room with his brother's corpse, candles are burning and snowdrops fall. Candles and snowdrops on window sills are materials that create the image of a home. These material objects are necessary for the speaker because he lacks a connection with his home and tries to recreate the feeling. His brother wore a bruise on his temple but did not have any gaudy scars. A scar is external and shows the world struggle and pain. On the other hand, a bruise is internal and eventually leaves. This is how the speaker's pain towards the four year old child's death is. He has feelings but the distance between he and his family and brother make showing that grief like his mother and father very hard.

Heaney uses strong images to share the story of the college student who lost his younger brother. Heaney can be describing how sometimes assuming life's responsibilities such as school distance us from those who mean the most to us.