Poetry: Mid Term Break, Study notes of Poetry

Download Poetry: Mid Term Break and more Study notes Poetry in PDF only on Docsity!

ENGELS

Poetry: Mid Term Break

Mid-Term Break

BY SEAMUS HEANEY

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

Poetry: Mid Term Break

Type: Lyric = Expressing the poet’s personal feelings, but also an Elegy = funeral speech/ song Mood : Melancholy/ mournful (Except the line about the baby) Tone: Sombre/ sad Rhythm: Iambic Pentameter Rhyme: Blank/ free verse except the last rhyming couplet

Poetry: Mid Term Break

Title

Title: Ironic, one expects a poem about a holiday, but instead it is

about death

Break: Fractured family/ cutting ties between him and his brother/

end of a life

Stanza 2:

In the porch I met my father crying— In the porch: He is home now- setting has changed father crying: Unusual for his father to cry, upsetting He had always taken funerals in his stride— in his stride: means to cope easily And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow. Big Jim Evans: Neighbour or family friend- close knit community a hard blow: pun (double meaning) Literal=the boy was hit by a car Figurative= family emotionally hurt by death The dash indicates the speaker was very upset seeing his father crying. Men in the 1950s didn’t show much emotion Crying is unusual for him, he had always been strong, now broken Big Jim probably didn’t mean to be insensitive, but he is awkward- doesn’t know what to say to the family of a dead child

Stanza 3:

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram The baby: Innocent and unaware of the events taking place Cooed: baby noises (onomatopoeia) rocked the pram: kicking in joy When I came in, and I was embarrassed When I came in: enjambment (run on line), shows movement Embarrassed: they treated him like an adult (unusual) By old men standing up to shake my hand shake my hand: adult gesture of greeting The baby doesn’t understand that she lost a brother, she is just happy to see her eldest brother (the speaker). The rhythm changes from slow paced to fast and bouncy because the baby is happy Usually a child would stand up and greet a grown up, but now the men are standing up and shaking his hand as a sign or respect and condolences. He doesn’t know how to react. Maybe death forces him to grow up too soon, which is implied by the fact that men now greet him as an adult

Stanza 5:

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. angry tearless sighs: overcome with anger and grief, cannot cry anymore. Anger is one of the stages of grief At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived ten o'clock: specific time again. Shows progression of time. Repetition of A= assonance (slows tempo, emphasises the words, short sound may indicate abrupt end to boy’s life With the corpse, st a nched and bandaged by the nurses. The corpse: The speaker distances himself by not saying “my brother” Stanched: To stop blood by using thick bandages Who is the mother angry with? Herself? The father? The child who died? God? The ambulance came to the speaker’s house with his brother’s bandaged body. In many cultures (including Irish Catholic in the 50’s, it is customary to display the body before the burial so that people can say good-bye

Stanza 6:

Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops Next morning: time progression Into the room: where his brother’s body was displayed Snowdrops: small white flowers that appear early spring. They could symbolize life after death/ a young child who died- the flowers are small and pale just like the child And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him Snowdrops and candles soothed the bedside: Personification, actually soothed the people coming to view the child Him: No longer refers to his brother as “the corpse”- maybe a step to acceptance and peace? For the first time in six weeks. Paler now, six weeks: time is mentioned again. He was away at school and hadn’t seen his brother for a long time. Does that make him feel guilty? Sad? Angry? Paler: Lack of blood flow, he is dead (whiter) Mood: the speaker appears calmer. He has a private moment with his dead brother. He never expresses his own emotions throughout the poem, but there is a sense of grief and loss When he last saw his brother he was still alive. Now that he is dead he loos pale. The speaker looks for differences since he last saw him

Stanza 8:

A four-foot box, a foot for every year. Four-foot box: the coffin is very small- young child Alliteration of F: emphasises how small the boy was Every year: He was only four years old This line is placed alone for emphasis and dramatic effect. It is the only line in the poem that rhymes with another. It creates a feeling of deep sympathy with the reader the brother was so young and small. Finally we understand the father’s sadness and the mother’s anger._