Mid-Term Break
reality of the situation – Heaney recalls leaving school mid-term due to the
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 the left temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in a cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
• The title is suggestive of a holiday period; however, this contrasts with the
death of his infant brother, Christopher.
• He remembers sitting ‘all morning in the college sick bay / Counting bells
knelling classes to a close’. The verb ‘knell’ is indicative of the sound of a
bell, especially when rung solemnly for a death or funeral. It would be
unusual for a school bell to ‘knell’ classes to a close. Perhaps this verb has
been chosen to show that his brother’s death was all Heaney could think about
– everyday sounds became funereal. The bell’s sound is made vivid by the
use of ‘c’ alliteration in the first two lines of the poem. At ‘two o’clock’ his
neighbours drove him home. Notice that time is a theme throughout the
poem.
• Once at home, he met his father ‘crying’. His father was clearly distraught.
This image contrasts greatly with the image portrayed of him by the poems
Digging and Follower. The fact that it is unusual for his father to cry is
further underlined by the statement: ‘He had always taken funerals in his
stride.’ Big Jim Evans made a somewhat unfortunate pun when he said ‘it
was a hard blow’, as Heaney’s infant brother was killed in a road traffic
accident. He was hit by a car’s bumper, which left him with a ‘poppy bruise
on the left temple’.
• Although natural, the baby’s cooing and laughing… seemed at odds with the
family’s grief. Heaney remembers being ‘embarrassed by old men standing
up to shake [his] hand’.
• He also remembers being embarrassed by their euphemisms (‘sorry for my
trouble’), their ‘handshakes’ and ‘whispers’. It is notable that his mother was
a source of strength as she is the one to hold his hand.
• His mother’s behaviour contrasted that of his father. Whereas his father
openly cried, his mother ‘coughed out angry tearless sighs’. Perhaps she had
shed so many tears previously there were no more left. Alternatively, she may
have been overwhelmed by emotion to the extent that she could not openly
express her feelings. Or, she may have wanted to maintain appearances and
grieve in private. We are again reminded of time passing, as our attention is
drawn to the fact that it was ‘ten o’clock’ when the ambulance arrived with
the ‘corpse’. It is interesting that Heaney uses the noun ‘corpse’ here. Maybe
he could not, at this point, accept the fact that his infant brother had been
killed and so uses the noun ‘corpse’ to disassociate death from his memory of
his brother. The assonant ‘a’ in this verse underlines the stopping short of
Heaney’s brother’s life.
• Time again passed before Heaney visited his infant brother’s body (‘I saw him
/ for the first time in six weeks’). The ‘snowdrops’ that he writes of
symbolise new life, after death. The fact that the candles ‘soothed the
bedside’ symbolise a calm and peaceful atmosphere. If we interpret this as a
transferred epithet, it becomes clear that Heaney himself has, at this point,
come to terms with his brother’s death.
• He remembers his infant brother as ‘wearing a poppy bruise on the left
temple.’ This is an interesting metaphor (‘wearing’) as it suggests that he
did not see the bruise as part of his brother. The noun ‘poppy’ is used as an
adjective to describe the bruise. This is appropriate as the poppy is a flower
linked with death and also with the soothing of pain (opiates come from
poppies). He uses a simile to describe how his infant brother lay in the four
foot box (‘as in a cot’). This simile indicates that his infant brother appeared
as if he was sleeping. It is somewhat ironic that his infant brother was left
with ‘no gaudy scars’ – he is dead, but was not disfigured.