Heany Blog 1

Mid-Term Break


Mid-term Break

I sat all morning in the college sick bayCounting bells knelling classes to a close,At two o'clock our neighbors 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 pramWhen I came in, and I was embarrassedBy old men standing up to shake my handAnd tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,Away at school, as my mother held my handIn hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.At ten o'clock the ambulance arrivedWith the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside; I saw himFor 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.A four foot box, a foot for every year.

Commentary:

In Seamus Heany's "Mid-Term Break" the speaker uses diction to show the theme of separation between the speaker and his family. The first instance in which this theme is shown is in the title of the poem. "Mid-Term" represents the interruption of the lifestyle that the narrator has felt so far from his family. "Break" show the separation that the narrator or speaker has with his family.

The word choice that the author uses and his constant reference to time add to theme of separation because the use of these elements create an atmosphere of disconnection and separation that the narrator is in. Word such as sick, crying and hard also add to the effect that the diction used by the author is trying to convey on the reader.

The theme of separation is also seen in the line in which the speaker claims to feel embarrased by old men stading to shake his hand and telling him they were sorry for his troubles. This portionm shows the separation between the narrator and his family in two different ways. First the use of the word embarrased shows his discontent to be at the funneral of his younger brother and thus making him feel a disconnection with his family. The second interpretation could be that he feel embarrased to be given sympathy from those around him because he feels as if he wasnt part of the family.

Once more the diction shows his separation as one line says "my mother held my hand in hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs." This line show this theme because we see that it is his mother who is reaching for his hand and not him who is and she also cries angry tearless sighs which shows his moms discontent with his separation from the family. As the poem comes to a conclusion the narrator says that he goes up to see his brother for the first time in six weeks which once more illustrates the theme of separation as he hasnt been around for a long time and seems as if he didnt mind that. Overall the wording and the concluding thoughts of the poem show his disconnection not only physically but also emotionally from his family.