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WORKSHOPS » POETRY » SEAMUS HEANEY, "MID-TERM BREAK" » RE-READING
Seamus Heaney, "Mid-Term Break"
BIOGRAPHY
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Re-Reading Questions
Text on p. 820 of the full Ninth Edition
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I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting 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 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.
A four foot box, a foot for every year.
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Re-Reading Questions
1. Reading poetry can be difficult because a poem only makes sense when read from punctuation mark to punctuation mark, paying little attention to line length and spacing. The natural tendency is to use the shape of the poem to influence the reading. Re-read it aloud from punctuation mark to punctuation mark; what ideas and images become clearer to you now?
The tone and emotion are set by many images: "[c]ounting bells knelling classes to a close"; [w]hispers informed strangers"; "I was embarrassed/By old men standing up to shake my hand"; "coughed out angry tearless sighs"; and "[w]earing a poppy bruise on the left temple." How does each of these images contribute to the tone and the emotion of the poem?
2. The most emotional line is the last, "A four foot box, a foot for every year." What information does that line give the reader? What emotional impact does it have?
3. The only light note is, "The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram." Why do you think the author included that image? What effect does it have on the tone? What do you think is the underlying meaning of showing the baby's contentedness?
4. Although the poem doesn't specifically say, how do you think the narrator feels not having seen the little boy for six weeks? How did you feel when you thought about the last time you saw someone you cared for before that person died?
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