Here’s a full analysis of the poem ‘Mid-Term Break’ by Seamus Heaney, tailored towards GCSE/IGCSE students but also suitable for those studying Heaney at a higher level.
Includes:
VOCABULARY
STORY / SUMMARY
SPEAKER / VOICE
ATTITUDES
LANGUAGE FEATURES
STRUCTURE / FORM
CONTEXT
THEM...
, STORY / SUMMARY
Stanza 1: We originally think that the student (speaker) is sick as he’s waiting
in the sickbay at school listening to the bells, but then we realise that he had
to go home to attend a funeral.
Stanza 2: The father was crying when the student returned home and that
the funeral was hard for most of the family members, even the adults who
were normally quite serious or strong-minded seemed to break down.
Stanza 3: The baby laughed and rocked the pram while the student was
shaking the hands of the old men who stood up, it was oblivious to the
context of the funeral.
Stanza 4: Strangers told the speaker that they’re sorry for his loss, then
people whispered about him, he found it unusual because he was suddenly
the centre of attention, people were informed that he was the eldest and had
been away at school.
Stanza 5: The speaker’s mother held his hand and coughed out angry,
tearless sights. The ambulance arrived at ten o’clock with the corpse, nurses
had stopped the bleeding and bandaged the body.
Stanza 6: The next morning, the speaker went up into the room in his house
where the body lay. The bed was surrounded by soothing snowdrop flowers
and candles. This was the first time he has seen the person for six weeks, he
was much paler now.
Stanza 7: He had a poppy bruise on the left-hand side of his forehead, he
was lying in a four-foot box as if it were his cot. He had no scars, the car
bumper had knocked him clear away from the car itself as it drove past and
hit him.
Stanza 8: He lay in a four-foot box, and we finally learn that he was only four
years old.
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