Poem Analysis: Mid-Term Break

In his poem Mid-Term Break, Heaney presents his experience with death, specifically about his brother. He portrays his understanding from memory, and how he was embarrassed and detaching his emotions from his own blood. The tone of this poem is very melancholic, presented with different meanings such as gender stereotypes being reversed and many other things and not really going in direct contact with his personal thoughts.

Firstly, the poet presents death as difficult to process, this is in view of the fact that he was a child experiencing grief, finding it hard to comprehend as his brain has not finished growing and he is in shock. He describes his little brother as a “corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses”. This completely diminishes emotional value from his little brother. Another example of this would be “I went up to the room”. He called his little brother’s room “the room” which doesn’t mention that it’s his little brother’s room even though we know it is his. Emotionally detaching yourself from death is possibly a coping mechanism that Heaney used to grieve better.

Furthermore, the poet presents his grief from his family as isolating, “I sat all morning in the college sick bay” which means that he was alone most of the time, “At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home.” he is driven by his neighbors whom are not his family and when grieving you require your family to be at your side. “All morning, two o’clock” means he spent a lot of time alone as he has counted and understood the events that took place, most people remember daily events of the day a loved one died as a blurred memory. Heaney portrayed his memories very vividly but clearly remembered exactly what happened on that day.

Lastly, Heaney presents the poem tragically and shocking, as the writer only acknowledged the corpse as his brother, it took some time for him to process the death “I saw him for the first time in six weeks, paler now, wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple” a poppy is known as a memorial flower. “As in his cot” this implies his brother was very little. This poem ends with a couplet which is broken off from the second last stanza of the poem which ties back to the title “Mid-Term Break”. “A four foot box, a foot for every year” the last stanza which ended very powerfully, confirming his dead brother’s age to be four years old.

To conclude everything that has been stated so far, Heaney portrayed his memories remembering what happened on that day. He spends a lot of time alone since he understands the events that took place. As he is driven by his neighbors who are not his family, his grief is seen to be isolating, especially from his own family. The poet writes of his younger brother. He utilized emotional detachment from death as a coping method for grieving more effectively. Heaney described his memory, recalling precisely what occurred on that day. The death was very shocking and tragic, as the brother was only 4 years old, an unfinished life that barely began and ended in seconds. The poem recalled a nostalgic melancholic tone, it feels like the poet would be speaking in a shocked, muffled way to us if it was performed.