“Mid-Term Break,” a free-verse poem by Seamus Heaney, delves into the speaker’s encounter with his younger brother’s death upon returning from boarding school. Within the poem, various themes such as time, age, family, pain, love, and death are explored. Death holds a crucial place in every individual’s existence despite being an unsettling subject matter. Our fear of death compels us to live; nevertheless, unforeseen deaths can bring immense anguish to the bereaved family.
The speaker embarks on a journey in this poem to reconcile with the loss of his beloved younger brother. Despite their apparent opposition to death and pain, family, age, and love are all crucial themes explored in this piece. The author employs diverse forms of imagery to depict these themes, challenging the audience’s visual, auditory, olfactory, and emotional experiences.
Throughout the poem, Seamus Heaney utilizes simile only once, comparing the coffin to a cot: “He lay in the four foot box as in a cot.” The poem is organized with three lines per stanza, resembling an unrhymed tercet except for the last line. This structure accentuates the significance of the final line to the readers.
The poem lacks a specific rhythm or rhyme pattern, but the last word in each stanza rhymes with the last word in the previous one. Structure is used by Heaney to highlight the significance of the last line, although poems are typically heard rather than read. The rhyme enables listeners to recognize the emphasis on the final line. Seamus Heaney’s choice of words in this poem creates its uniqueness. The phrase “it was a hard blow” and the mention of the cooing baby contribute an air of awkwardness to the poem.
The use of the phrase “the corpse” in addressing the deceased brother creates distance in the initial part of the poem, until the line “Next morning” where the speaker finally acknowledges him with the pronoun “him.” Additionally, the word “soothed” adds a sense of warmth to the poem. Nevertheless, this word is juxtaposed with terms related to mourning, death, or sickness like “bedside,” “candles,” and “Snowdrops.” These word choices take the audience on an emotional rollercoaster.
Furthermore, the author’s decision to use certain literary devices such as alliteration, assonance, and repetition serves to amplify the significance of the “four foot box” mentioned in the final line. This choice emphasizes the central theme of the poem. In conclusion, although there is a certain bitterness present in the poem, the language and its connotations impart a tender sense of affection and unease, evoking a feeling of bashfulness while also enveloping the audience in a mix of bittersweet icy warmth.
This is how the speaker feels during the series of events in the poem, allowing the audience to experience it rather than simply reading or hearing about it. The audience goes through the stages of accepting death and feels all the emotional impact that comes with it, from detachment to acceptance. The author’s language choices and use of literary devices effectively convey the desired effect, particularly in highlighting the final line that concludes the poem with a bittersweet note.
