Very much appreciated Dr. Barker. I haven't read any Irish poetry since my Leaving Certificate 10 years ago. You explained more about this poem in 35 minutes than I learned during these years. I will continue to reference your lectures as I read more poetry.
I like the interpretation of “f” sounds showing anger of the speaker, but I also think of the “f” sounds as a yell of frustration. Throughout the poem, the speaker describes this tragic event from a detached angle, seeing his father cry; hands being held by his mother who sighs with angry coughs. Unlike his parents, he does not know how to react on his brother’s death. The last line can be a subtle cry for awareness to his frustration, of a boy who is too young to handle his brother’s death.
Wonderful video, I think about the sixth and seven stanzas a lot when talking about the appearance of Heaney's brother. As you mentioned, the poem used sibilance a lot in order to create the quietness in the wake of his brother's death. But "poppy bruise" not only stands out after Heaney has described a child-like innocence, it also disrupts the pattern with its "p" and "b" sound, it seems to match with his latter anger implied in the last line. "Wearing a poppy bruise" also doesn't sound ugly and as if it will fade in a matter of time, when in fact it would not.
One of the interested longer poems that were beautifully decorated by a man having blue eyes, red curly hair and a tremendous physique. Every morning after offering my prayers, I sat beside my mother, who does not understand the language but I translate having learned a stanza then she feels comfortable. It is a very nice poem that can touch the heart of the reader.
Interesting lecture on a Heaney poem I hadn't read before. If we allow for the 'voice' of a poem to belong to a 'persona' and not to equate the poem directly with the poet, regardless of how biographical the poem appears to be, then I don't see that any information about Heaney's parents ownership of a car necessarily dilutes the power of the line about the neighbours driving him home. The line still holds the full force of its mystery intact by virtue of the fact that we know or suspect through poetic convention that the poet is setting up an instance of narrative tension at this juncture. Because the idea that the persona's parents don't own a car is banal and rather literal, we automatically reject it in favour of some other more interesting reason, which is the second one you mention; that his parents are traumatised by a death. Knowing about Heaney's true life parents shouldn't affect a reader's understanding of this line at all. The presentation of how anger is embedded in the final lines is effective and moving.
A mother is frequently the backbone of the family, yet equally yoked with her husband, the Father. As the Mother, with her multitasking abilities, to me means 'tearless sighs' is her masking the pain on behalf of other family members: especially of her precious young son; a treasured son, as giving him a school/college education, a sacrifice of not having his presence at home: perhaps he personifies another kind of loss, relieving her of other grief and loss she had felt in him. Her coughing, is the outward sound of her keeping back her grief and tears, inwardly kept, yet fighting against her wishes. Yes, I imagine she cried for her child, endlessly, lost to death; a life, a part of her, and the pain she found almost too hard to endure, even to trying to lock-in, a loss taken through an accident not of ill health; an unprepared-for deep shock. All the more poignant as based on a true experience of Heaney: deeply moving, also of an intense, yet painful beauty. The final line 'A four foot box, a foot for every year.' really gives The space to grieve with him. Heartfelt, both wonderfully and tragically explained. That said, I understand the anger expressed in the intended sounding of the alliterative sequence; makes perfect sense as a level of pain of a needless loss of life, expressed. A tremendous and much loved Poet in Seamus Heaney.
I just want to say going to funerals as a kid is a whole lot different from going to one as an adult. My grandpa passed away when I was 5, and I knew nothing about death back then: I saw his funeral as just a 'fancy dress-up event', and I even had the audacity to play with my cousin. Maybe this 'rite of passage' isn't just facing trauma; being able to understand the trauma you've just faced is a part of it too.
You miss the importance of the neighbors driving him home. This is a standard practice in Ireland even when the bereaved owned cars of their own. Neighbors take on certain duties. Picking ppl up at airports, train stations etc, cooking meals, milking cows. Seeing someone's neighbors at a school was more grave than seeing ones parents, almost like US military arriving to announce a battlefield death. The most important of these serious duties neighbors volunteer to do is digging the grave. This is a privilege reserved for close friends and neighbors.
This is an excellent review, but I'd like to correct you on 2 minor points. 1. I went to that school and, yes the big bell still rang (1989 - 1991) when it was the end of the period with a "ding-dong", although electronically clanged I think, by then. It's now Lumen Christi College. And Mr. Walls taught us that poem in Bishop Street in the old nurse's office he mentions in the poem. 2. He'd have pronounced it, "stahnched", to resemble "bandaged", not like, "stawnched". Otherwise, love the video! Well done!
Thanks. Great story about being taught the poem in the nurses office. Out of interest, I'm trying to get my head round the pronunciation of staunched, which I'm totally prepared to believe I pronounce incorrectly. Are you saying the first A in each word, staunched and bandaged, has an internal rhyme? I go for the internal rhyme with corpse in my pronunciation of 'stawnched' and 'cawpse'. Pronounciation-wise I'm willing to back someone else over myself most of the time, as any phonetic rendering of the way I speak always stands against me.
This lecture is fascinating. I previously thought I knew every aspect of this poem. However I missed a few important points which Andrew pointed out. I missed the significance of KNELLING And the right of passage. I have my own little private knowledge to this piece. I sat in that same sick bay in st collumbs college Derry after I sat on a bee. Put on my seat as a prank. I remember thinking this is where seamus Heaney sat, waiting for the lift home. The sick bay is very small very quiet. A lonely place
@@mycroftlectures it was so long ago. Circa 1981. It stuck me as slightly antiquated. (The sick bay) I am sure u are aware that st columbs college was run by the clergy at that time. Heaney was boarding there. Boarding has now stopped. Even in my day it was a pretty disciplined place. It’s motto translated from the Latin is “seek ye first the kingdom of god”.
I have no qualification to comment on poetry. But I remember some people in literary circles critised the final line. I cannot remember accurately their argument but I seem to recall they viewed it as cheap. But personally I think it is dramatic and beautiful
I poem written in black and white, but full of grey. What colour death, white of coarse. Nothing bright, just candle light. With only the innocent making happy sound,s. Many thanks for your enjoyable illumination of a moving scene.
Nice analysis. I think that the baby could be a in contrast with the crying father, but also with the young brother who is dead. If he were to be alive, he would be just like that kid still carelessly laughing. Well that is just what I think.
Has everyone, seeing his father deeply weeping, especially when you are young, forgot or minimize that moment? It is a growing moment, for Ideals, for Death, for Love, for Joy, after an intense Rath episode, does it matter?
I think the poem as a whole could be seen as the rite of passage of the poet from the fact that the poet studied in the college signified that he was a young adult, to old adults interacted with him and treated him as a man, to the fact that his mother needed his comfort and help as families tended to help children to mourn but in this case, she could not do so and she could not turn to the family figure (the dad) as he was crying in the porch which left the poet as the pillar of the house, and to the ways the poet treated death. Moreover, the title "Mid-Term Break" has different meanings. Literally, it was a break or a holiday from school that allowed the poet to get home. But I also believe that the break was also caused by the fact that his brother was killed. Also, I believe that the final line was said in bitter and sad as it was a waste for such young child to die. I do not believe that it was said in anger but your analysis gave it a new perspective but it raised the question: is the emphasizing on stressing the "f" sounds generally lead to profanity? Could it mean other things?
the bestest ever lecture on the subject and the poem i was looking for. the way sir explained those unfamiliar words like thou and thee became easier all credit goes to you sir. tonnes of thanks to you.... you may be of great help to all those students of MA English who like me find themself weaker in poetry section..... thanks
Hera, Chan Pui Ki (4064389) “It can be argued that in Mid-term Break, two children die. What causes the end of childhood in Mid-term Break?” This poem can be seen as a poem of the death of two children since the mid-term break is a poem about a child who comes home for a funeral of his beloved younger brother during the mid-term break but the mid-term break here is not a joyful occasion. It can be argued that two children died in this poem since the younger brother of the author is physically dead while the child faced the death of his childhood with his grief towards the death of his young brother. In the poem The Pond, the author faced the death of his childhood gradually. In this poem, the poet sat at the steep edges of the pond and watched the carps when he was young. As the author grew older, the water level came down from time to time in the course of natural changes and he could see the carps struggling to breathe and they died. The carps in the pond were associated with the poet’s childhood since they were part of the poet's childhood memories. The last line of the poem “in such a pond a child might frown” echoes with the notion of the death of childhood. Similarly, in the mid-term break, the child faced the death of his childhood by knowing that his younger brother was dead since his childhood would be no longer the same as the past. Although the child does not experience the tragic accident in the first few stanzas, his sadness grew from time to time. At the first stanza, the child sat in the college sick bay and waited for his neighbours to drive him home, up to this point, nothing dramatic happened. In the second stanza, the child noticed his father's reactions to somebody’s funeral and Big Jam Evans said it was a hard blow this time. It shows that it is unusual since his father has attended funerals before, and “he had always taken funerals in his stride” but this time should be something more serious and exceptional since he could not keep his calmness. In the third and fourth stanza, the child felt embarrassed by the strangers’ greetings and apologies since the boy might be a little bit confused but one had a sense that something tragic has happened. The emotion gets intense in the fifth stanza that the mother coughed out angry tearless sighs since she is so frustrated yet does not know what else she can do. At this point, the sadness which is depicted by the reactions of the family members became stronger. The feeling of loss came suddenly when the child finally knew his young brother’s death when he saw his brother wearing “a poppy bruise on his left temple”. The corpse was almost colourless and it was his first time to see the dead body of his beloved brother. “No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear” is an ironic line to depict the child’s helplessness and frustration. Besides, he noticed that the four-foot coffin indicated the death of a kid. The final line comes with strong emotion with many stressed syllables /f/ in “A four-foot box, a foot for every year”, to show the child frustration toward the sudden death of his younger brother.
Lau Hung Ying, Karen (4169971) While Heaney’s brother was killed by a car and physically died when he was 4 years old, the unusual adults’ means of communications around Heaney, together with his parents’ unconventional reactions brings his childhood to the end. The repetition of hands demonstrates that Heaney is passed from hand-to-hand by various adults, including his neighbours, his father, relatives, some strangers and his mother. First, it is weird that he is driven home by his neighbors but not his parents. When he arrives on the porch, he is at the entrance of the adult world. His parents’ abnormal reactions upend the traditional gender roles. According to the social norm, men are supposed to be stoic and able to bear grief silently while women would openly express their emotions. However, his father is openly crying while his mother is tearless, failing to articulate herself. It is rare for a child to see his father weeping. In stanza 2, the assonance of the /i/ sound connects ‘crying’ and ‘stride’ which creates a contrast. Despite being composed at funerals before, this time, his father could not control his profound sadness of losing a son. Additionally, his mother is seeking comfort from Heaney while exhaling angry tearless sighs. Their family roles are interchanged. Parents usually hold their children’s hands to protect them. In addition, when those strangers murmur that Heaney is the eldest, it seems that Heaney has to bear the responsibility to take care of his family from now on. Despite coming across with different adults, nobody directly tells him the truth. For example, Big Jim describes it euphemistically as ‘a hard blow’. He may find it strange because adults usually use straightforward language to communicate with children. Also, a sense of secrecy is created when people whisper behind him. Usually, children would directly ask adults whatever they do not understand but Heaney does not do so in this solemn situation. This demonstrates that he is losing his innocence, awaring that something is seriously wrong. The unknowing baby who is the only one makes loud utterances shows big contrast. Later, the old men suddenly treat him as a man instead of a child. He was embarrassed by these adults’ means of communication because he has just started transforming from a child to an adult. He is not yet a man so he is bewildered, wondering how to react when relatives formally shake his hands, and why people talk around him. These adults usher him to discover the truth by himself. Then, Heaney’s’ first experience of the reality of death in the room alone demonstrates the induction into the adult world. He is no longer accompanied by adults when facing uncertainties and fears. Although a school usually represents a ‘safe’ area, he is no longer fully protected from the hard truth. He is not having classes as usual. Instead, he is waiting alone in the sick bay. When he replaces the word ‘ringing’ with ‘knelling’, it implies that he has acquired some knowledge about death. Apart from their usual role in everyday routine, the school bells bring additional meanings to him, namely funerals. His perceptions towards the world become more complicated. Later, he gets closer to the removal of the sense of humanity when seeing the stanched and bandaged corpse. Finally, he visits the bedside alone. The spiritual religious symbols, namely the snowdrops and candles could not console him as reflected by ‘soothed the bedside’. He is inundated with a multitude of feelings when visiting his dead brother. He wants to deny the fact at first shown by the word choice 'wearing as if the bruise could be taken off, as well as using ‘four-foot box’ rather than ‘coffin’ in stanza 7. Simultaneously, he feels guilty because he was away when the accident happened, which is exemplified by the phase ‘for the first time in six weeks’ in stanza 6. His anger, possibly at himself or the driver, is further illustrated by the deliberate stress on the ‘f’ sound in the final line. After having this first-hand experience, he would recognize that the ‘real’ world is not as rational and ordered as childhood’s ones. Uncertainties could knock people out of their daily routines like he temporarily leaves school to attend his brother’s funeral. Also, matters in adulthood are not as ordered or planned as the social norm. Someone who is ‘big’ like Big James or other adults may sometimes find it hard to confront tragedy. To conclude, in Mid-term Break, Heaney is leaving the protected world and is exposed to the truth of the adult world.
Kwok Hau Yi, Sandy 4055663 Mid-term Break can be argued that two children die which we can see that Heaney’s little brother was dead due to a car accident before his mid-term break. It is the first child to die in Mid-term Break. The second child, who dies in the Mid-term Break is mentally dead when he faces the death of his loved one. He was too young to face the death of his brother and experienced the cruelty of life at his young age, which changes him forever. In the poem, from stanza to stanza, we could see the emotions have grown stronger and stronger. He was sad, but he was a bit confused about his sadness in the first place. When he was home, he saw his father cried on the porch. The reaction of his father shows the trauma that he is going is hard to handle. His mother could not comfort Heaney, who was suffering the same as her. His mother can only rely on Heaney. He only saw the sadness of his family, but he didn’t express his own feelings. He only knew that it was weird that everyone was looking at him and his parents cannot control their grief. But later in the funeral, he saw the corpse of his brother, the emotions of Heaney have become vivid. The sorrow and anger have been expressed when he sees his brother’s pale face. These changes in his life have ended his childhood. He is no longer a child since he has seen the cruelty of life, the death of his loved one. He needs to handle his grief towards his brother's death. It means that this mid-term break has changed his life forever. So, in Mid-term Break, it can be argued that two children die. Heaney’s little brother died physically in a car accident and his childhood also died in his brother’s funeral. It is similar to The Pond, which also mentions the theme of the death of childhood. In The Pond, the poet has used the symbols of ‘literal light’ and ‘seeming light’ to represent the children’s imagination and the death of childhood respectively. The poet used to see ‘seeming light’ when he looks into the pond, which suggests that he has his imagination towards to world. However, when the poet grows up, he starts to see the cruelty of nature as well as his life, he lost his imagination. Then, he can only see ‘literal lights’, which represents the end of his childhood. As he has seen the reality of life, he learns that the pond is not pure imagination anymore as the pond is full of deaths. In Mid-term Break, Heaney was an ordinary child who comes home to stay with his family during the mid-term break. However, the car accident which killed his little brother also killed his childhood. He encountered his brother’s funeral and we can see his grief. ‘A four-foot box, a foot for every year.’ His brother dies at a very young age and he is angry about his brother’s death which he cannot change this truthful reality that life is so vulnerable. The death of his brother triggers the end of Heaney’s childhood, as he sees the vulnerability of life and he no longer is a child, but able to help his parents to get through with the grief and sorrow of the loss of a loved one.
Tan Kai Teck Desmond (4198776) It can be argued that in Mid-term Break, two children die. What causes the end of childhood in Mid-term Break? Here we have a poem describing firstly the death of the poet’s younger brother after a tragic car accident and secondly the death of the poet’s childhood after witnessing death. As the video has explained very well how the poem talked about the death of his brother, the following shall focus on the death of Seamus’s childhood and how the poem hints at this. We often associate childhood with innocence when the child is simple and pure. Their lack of knowledge and awareness of reality protects them from worries and concerns. The 17th Century philosopher John Locke once suggested that we are all born with a “blank slate”. As we gain knowledge through education, we gradually gain awareness but at the same time become hardened. We are not as easily excited by simple things, we become cautious (Or “smarter”) and more pessimistic etc. By this time, we would often think of the person having become an adult, and his childish thoughts/childhood has died. Besides education, this change can be initiated by experience, often a disturbing, perhaps even traumatic one. In this case, the death of the poet’s brother is like a violent wake-up call from a beautiful dream, where everything is pure and simple. Possibly before this time his life was dominated by his school life, sports like any other boy. In a way, the change in mental state shows how the child Heaney is crushed and died. In the second stanza, rather than going forward to console his father, he seemed puzzled, comparing to how his father was in other funerals, “taken funerals in his stride”. Then in the 3rd stanza, he is “embarrassed” by the standing recognition given to him by the adults in the room. As explained in the video, this is a rite of passage for the young Heaney, but instead of feeling even more saddened, he is embarrassed. With these points, I would like to argue that Seamus’s child has not completely died yet, as it has not shown that he is emotionally impacted by this event yet, at least not like his parents. He feels the impact of his brother’s death, but not as strong as to change him yet. We see the impact in the final two stanzas, when the poet lay eyes on the lifeless body of his brother. The last line of stanza 6 is quite powerful as he mentions seeing him for the first time in six weeks (He was in boarding school). Death has forced him to question the fragility of human life. Six weeks ago, he was perhaps spending time with a joyful brother, now he is a body on the bed, so tranquil yet lifeless. New feelings take over the poet, the sibilance and the final stresses on the “f” pronunciation suggest regret, which fuses into anger, perhaps also at himself, for not spending time with his brother more. The sight of his brother’s tranquil death, like an ice-cold slap across the face, brought forth such matured emotions. Death and everything else immediately seemed so final, sudden, and random. There is no “Happily Ever After”, his brother doesn’t live forever and neither does he nor anyone he cares about. All his time and happiness with his younger brother has meant nothing, led to this scene, him lying peacefully with only a bruise that looks so harmless from the outside. It is safe to say that this scene would scar him for life. Then finally the line “A four-foot box, a foot for every year” may suggest the poet asking an existential question. The child Seamus Heaney, by the end of the poem, has died, replaced by someone darker, more cynical, and complex. As mentioned in the video as well, the title Mid-Term Break suggests irony, complex language that children or people with a simple heart might find difficult to comprehend. This ironic title might suggest how this event has thrown away most of his childish beliefs; the irreversible fact of death has killed his brother, and ironically himself (As a child), even though he was not involved in the car accident. (By the way, you probably don't want to hear this...but this is actually a really nice video!)
Hillary CHAN (4181412) "It can be argued that in Mid-term Break, two children die. What causes the end of childhood in Mid-term Beak? In the poem The Pond, we looked at the death of childhood, that moment where the child becomes an adult. In the poem, literally, there is only one child physically died due to the car accident while it can also be argued that the voice died as well, owing to the disappearance, and ending of his childhood. The first thing we had to identify is what constitutes one's childhood? Protection from the elder, naivety, body growth(size) and how they treat the surroundings. A child is being protected by all the love with his parents, forgiven by all the mistakes they have made due to naiveness, growing rapidly in size, and treating everything and incidents with guidance. The voice lost the constituents of childhood gradually and faced the cruelty of being an adult once he was sent back home during the mid-term break. In the first place, without his parent companion, he was drove back to his home by a neighbour when he was in the college sick bay for the whole morning. It is uncommon that parent not picking their child up from school when they are ill at school, which indicates that they are busy with something more important than their child's sickness, although it is expected that neighbour take up the responsibility to bring back pupils home after school. He is no longer the priority of his parent and started losing protection even he was sick. The mournful description of 'knelling' sound also foreshadows a funeral upcoming. In the past, adults seldom reveal their true emotion to the kids in order not to let them concern. In stanza 2,4,5, his father was 'crying' in the porch, Big Jim Evans told him 'it was a hard blow' and his mother 'coughed out angry tearless sigh', all of these behaviors establish a sorrowful atmosphere within the house and the attendants of funerals. In other words, the exposure of adults' emotion and the 'whispers informed strangers I was the eldest' becomes the evidence that they treated the voice as a grown-up that can share grief with and echoes the message that the childhood of the voice had been ended. Comparing it with the only child in the house which is the baby, his 'cooed and laughed and rocked the pram' is nothing related to the painful tragedy of the deceased and the baby did not know what is going on. What is more, 'with the corpse' clearly shows his younger brother's physical death. The voice had to face life's cruelty and how vulnerable one is through the first funeral that his loved one as the main character. In addition, 'for the first time in six weeks. Paler now', as he was away from his home, the next meeting with his brother was already after his death, being pale as a dead body. His young brother's vigorous, active face contrast with the spiritless and pale deceased, awakens him from his unspoiled naivety of being a child. Besides, 'A four foot box, a foot for every year' portrays child's physical growth, when the boy died, the growth also stopped. The 'f' sound in the final stanza assimilates the furious emotion triggered by the unpredicted death of his younger brother. The voice is no longer the innocent child protected by his parents and kept away from all the tragic news. His understanding of the idea of death and the first encounter of loved ones' death forced him to grow and end his childhood and at last 'died' mentally.
Great listen. Disagree with Heaneys father being in the porch to hide his emotion. Much the opposite. The "wake" is taking place as young Heaney arrives home, his father is in the porch to meet people as they come to visit and pay their respects. Very much a front and center position in all that is going on.
Fair point, that. I have to agree. He's outside of the main throng of people in the house, but for what I say to be unquestionably true, it would make more sense for him to be the back garden, in the shed, or something, wouldn't it?
That's right yes. Although you could dispute whether the wake has actually begun, as the corpse is not present when Heaney arrives. Probably just very close family and neighbours at this stage (believe Jim Evans lived directly opposite the Heaneys).
Tan Kai Teck Desmond (4198776) How does the emotional state of the child in the poem change from the beginning to the end? So much has changed throughout the poem. As the lecture has pointed out, it is a rite of passage for the author, from the childish innocence to experiencing death. At the beginning, we see the author, a kid who knows nothing of trauma or sadness that defines our lives. He is sitting there in the sick bay of the school. The news has reached him alright and he is sad, but there seemed to be little evidence to suggest that this has yet to hit him hard. In the second stanza, he starts to realize that his parents, strong in their images, have been utterly broken. Here he starts to realize that everyone, including himself, is vulnerable to trauma. Yet in the third stanza, the poem focuses on how embarrassed the author was as strangers come up to shake his hand and give them their condolences. Here enjambment serves a beautiful purpose as they imitate the massive load of information that comes crashing down on the young author. At this moment he is more confused than sad. In the fourth stanza, his mother holds him for comfort. He feels the strong emotion emanating from everything around him, but he has yet to experience it. It is in the last three stanzas then the child’s rite into some form of maturity is complete. As he sees his four year old brother for the first time since he left for school. The poem employs long vowels and sibilance to imitate the tranquillity of the moment, and perhaps the idea that the child dreads this moment, where he would see an empty shell of his brother, covered with tributes to his short life. The child experiences first-hand the effect of death. However, I do not think that the child is angry at how short or wasteful his death was. The child compares the four foot box to his cot, how close in size they resemble; one made for birth, while the other made for death. This is a lament. A lament to how fate has in stall for his brother, and for himself. It almost seems like the cot is a sign of the impending coffin that his brother will be resting in. He ends with this powerful sentence: “A four foot box, a foot for every year.” This is perhaps a countdown to his brother’s eventual end. He grows a foot every year, only to be moved into a coffin of the perfect size. Here the child’s emotional state turns from innocence, confusion, to a mixture of anger, sadness and a lament for the fragility of life. I think there is a slight hint at an existential crisis the child is experiencing. Will there be a box for him? How long will his box be?
CHENG Cheuk Yiu Cherub 4130839 I think this poem makes me think that Heaney might have already attended other funerals before and he was familiar with what happened on that day. Heaney could tell that his dad always took funerals in stride and he was quite conscious with the time. He was counting the bells, he remembered it was 2 and it was 10 o’clock. He knew it had been 6 weeks. I feel like Heaney was prepared for the day, he knew what would happen at certain time and he was following the plan. I think if we remove words relating to “school” and “drove me home”, I feel like he was acting like a regular adult. He looks prepared. I think generally the child had been melancholy throughout the poem and only the hand-shaking part shows me that he was embarrassed and annoyed. I also think Heaney was quite anxious during the funeral because he did not mention what he was doing at the funeral. We know his father was crying and his mother was sighing. There was no information as to what happened to Heaney so I think he was pretty anxious at that time that he did not know how to react (and of course he was not experienced in the situation). I think Heaney would have guessed what would happen during a funeral and how one’s father & mother would act like when it comes to losing their son because everyone should have sort of predicted what would happen during a funeral so he was not shocked with their reaction and I do not think his parents' reaction would account for his emotional state.
Lam Wai Sum Phronesis (4074243) “How does the emotional state of the child in the poem change from the beginning to the end?” I would say that the child has a conspicuous change in terms of his emotional state. His emotion towards the death of his brother changed from being in despair passively to being active and irritated and angry throughout the development of the poem. From the beginning of the poem, we can see that the emotion of the child was constantly shaped or depicted through the surroundings. He sat in the college sick bay in despair, hearing the sound of bells knelling and that he was drove home by his neighbor; And then he saw his father crying, which was unusual, and the strangers came to shake his hand, also his mother holding his hand trying to get comfort. He was involved within all these actions, but he is not the one who initiate these actions. The writer did not write much about how exactly the child feels which seems to me, his emotion was quite passive, until the sixth stanza. The child went up to the room where his brother’s corpse is, observing his bruise, using the serenity (snowdrops and candles) scene to make a big contrast between the beautiful and peaceful environment and the tragic situation occurred. Within the last stanza, describing his ‘poppy bruise’ and how he laid in the coffin, and the sentence ‘the bumper knocked him clear’, it outlines how innocent his brother was, making a perfect sense of the anger and irritation felt by the writer in the last sentence. As the lecture has pointed out, the writer emphasized the ‘f- ‘sound, assuming that the writer is ‘justifiably angry’. He was irritated and angry about the innocent life being killed rather than in despair from the beginning of the poem.
“How does the emotional state of the child in the poem change from the beginning to the end?” Hera, Chan Pui Ki (4064389) Many emotions are involved, which progress from grief to frustration. The child in the poem shows his grief towards the death of his young brother, although the poem does not address the tragic accident directly, it depicts the mourning by capturing the funeral atmosphere and the reactions of the family in a subtle and sensitive way. The poem begins with the title “ Mid-term Break” to describe the daily routine of an innocent young who does not know about death. In the first stanza, the boy sits in the college sick bay, and “Counting bells knelling classes to a close.”, which here symbolizes the funeral bell and death, which shows the atmosphere gets more dreadful. The boy might be a little bit confused but one has a sense that something tragic has happened. In the second stanza, it shows that it is unusual since his father has attended funerals before, and “he had always taken funerals in his stride”, yet it is a “big blow” for him since it is a big hit to them and it moves his father, while the boy is embarrassed by the “By old men standing up to shake my hand” since he does not know how to act, it implies he is so young and innocent to face death in his childhood, he does not even know who is dead in this case. The emotion gets intense in stanza four, the mother cannot confront the death of her beloved. She coughed out angry tearless sighs since she is so frustrated yet does not know what else she can do. At this point, the sadness is still depicted by the reactions of the family member, the boy still does not know how to act in this situation. Finally, the boy finally knows that his young brother’s death when he sees his brother is' ' Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple”, it implies that the bruise is something temporary and that it can be removed at some point, and while the boy sees the dead body, it reminds him of his younger baby brother sleeping in the cot. It is broken-hearted to notice that the four-foot coffin is very small, which we know must be the death of someone young. The final line comes with strong emotion with many stressed syllables /f/ in “A four-foot box, a foot for every year”, to show the frustration toward the vulnerability of life and the sudden death of his brother who supposes to live and grow happily with his family.
Chong Hoi Kwo 4084248 The Mid-Term Break is a poem about a child who comes home for a funeral of his loved one during mid-term break, rather than having a fun vacation. The emotional state of the child overflows throughout the journey home which appears to have overwhelmed him. The poem begins with the child staying at the sick room at school and associating the school bell with the funeral bell, suggesting that the child has gone through something devastating and depressing. As soon as he gets home, he realises what he is dealing with is something traumatic, traumatic enough to see his otherwise stoic father cry. The sense of unfamiliarity and awkwardness is further intensified when the seniors value his appearance, stands up for him and shake hands with him, treating him as their peer. However, to the child, all he feels is embarrassment, of not knowing what to do. The unfamiliarity to the adults’ condolence and being overloaded by what he has encountered may suggest he is not fully prepared to become a grown-up. Another example is the interaction between him and his mother. Instead of him being comforted by his mother, he is supporting his mother who “coughed out angry tearless sighs”; who is utterly broken. Finally, as indicated in the lecture, the repeated stress on the “f”-sound in the last line leads to the feeling that the child is justifiably angry when he finally sees his four-year-old brother’s dead body in coffin, as if he is profaning, “My innocent little brother is gone forever, he can never enjoy the joy and happiness again. What a waste of life”. It is worth noting that it is the only time that he has a private moment, not interrupted by anyone and overwhelmed by anything else, to grieve the death of his brother. In addition, the child plays a rather passive role in the previous stanzas (stanza 1 to 5) where he is observing grief, rather than grieving himself, and is subjected to the events that came up. Therefore, the last line is a powerful revelation of the tragical loss of his four-year-old brother. Furthermore, it is noted that the mental state of the child corresponds to geographical distance. When he is in college, he seems to have taken his brother’s news passably. In the porch, he begins to realise the seriousness of the event; later when he goes into the house, his frustration developed. Finally, there is a sign of anger in his grief when he finally sees his brother’s coffin. Hence, we can see that the child’s emotion is escalating gradually as he is moving towards the dead body of his brother in response to the event he goes through. It is interesting that when he uses the word “corpse” to describe his brother when the ambulance arrives. To some extent, it shows a level of distance which maybe because he has not seen his brother for six weeks or he is geographically distant to his brother. To conclude, the child’s emotional state changes according to the events in the funeral, as well as geographical distance.
To be honest, my guess would be that for anything up to University level it would be deemed inappropriate. It's a gamble, so why risk it? At University level I would argue strongly for the point made in the lecture, even to the extent of saying "The anger demonstrated at the end of the poem demonstrates an emotional growth in the child who has seemed somewhat shell-shocked up to this point. It is this natural anger that indicates a growth that reveals he will be able to help his mother later." But at junior cert level you run the risk of not fully explaining yourself to a marker who does not agree with the argument anyway. If you feel you can confidently explain the point by all means use it, but there are many other, less contentious points to be made, as as with all exams time is a factor. If you do use the "stress on F sounds" point, phrase it as something like: "It can be coherently argued that the deliberate stress on aggressive, profanity-linked, F sounds Heaney employs in the final lines, indicates a final anger from the child that had not been revealed up to this point. etc etc" That way you do not sound like you're throwing the fucks into the essay just for the sake of it.
@@mycroftlectures thanks for the feedback! Very helpful!! Some markers can be particularly strict. I lost marks for writing 'holy cow' in my french letter for 'inappropriate use of language' in my mock exams. Your advice and tips are very much appreciated and I would love to see more videos like this on other poems
@@fammakewo I've watched it, and am now recommending it: English is the study of how things get expressed, so swearing turns out to be fairly significant, once your students are mature enough to deal with it. If they can cope with talking bout sex, or the death of a small child... PS: in this context, read 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'!
Barron, Ng Sheung Huen Aside from the narrator who witnessed and described his family's reaction to the death in their family, we first see how his father reacts to this, crying outside the porch, perhaps not trying to weep in front of the family. A man who has not been bothered by funerals before cried signifies how traumatized this incident is to the father, making man cry. This is usually contrary to the usual, or traditional image of men, tending to suppress their emotions especially compared to women. With the mother, we see her "held my hand in hers and coughed out angry tearless sigh." As the mother seemingly tries to comfort the narrator it's obvious that she has cried out tears herself shocked and terrified by this death in their family. These two characters showed a strong robust burst of sorrow upon their reaction. The death is also magnified by how the narrator, as a kid was even greeted by "old men standing up to shake my hand," where usually adult tends to ignore kids in the case of condolences, showing how significantly tragic this incident could be. Whereas the narrator of this poem captures how others react to the death of his family member. We only see how he was upset by this news in the first stanza sitting at the college sick bay hearing class bells as the knell. The state of his plain reaction follows next however shows how overloaded he was throughout this incident. Death brings nothing but anguish and pain to the family. Only the innocent baby is free from this suffering.
Heru: As a poem about the loss of life, there is no mention of ‘death’ or its like; though extreme grief is to be felt through several readings of the poem, there is a lack of emotional adjectives, with one exception of the mother’s ‘angry’ tearless cough, throughout the lines; three neat lines constitute most of the stanzas to form a sense of regularity in the face of such a traumatizing event… the death in the family, through narrator’s factual lens, seems to be checked and handled with maturity. But he is melancholy as he goes to the deathbed and describes slowly 'snowdrops and candles soothe the bedside', and the ending line, which borders on profanity, reveals he is stifled and under, in fact, so great a mental challenge to digest the sudden loss despite his seeming calmness, that he could only resort to profanity to let out. One could say that his reaction is of more-matured stoicism and that he has done his best and taken the sudden rite of passage well and humanly enough. I would suggest one of the reasons he tries to remain tough and unrevealing in front of great grief has something to do with others’ reactions to the event: his father, despite his effort to conceal, fails to help his tears; his mother is already tearless, speechless, and overcome with grief to the extent of desperation, falling into a state of significant dependence upon his entry; the elderly in the community remain somberly mournful and all look up to his reaction; even the incorporation of the laughing and rocking baby, contrasting to the serene and grave background, maybe serves as a reminder of a passed and now-uncalled-for boyhood for him. So the narrator, as the eldest son facing the breakdown of his parents, must take up the responsibility to be sombre enough to carry on as expected by all present.
Fred, Chu Tsz Ki As the poem talks about the loss of life, it uses an imagery of how people reacted to the death of family members. Throughout this poem, Heaney experiences that he is pessimistic as he hears the bells which ring the classes to a close as ‘knelling’ that it seems hard to close with the school bell rings of a funeral bell. He describes them as “knelling”, which often use to describe the funeral bells indicating the death on Heaney’s mind and that he thinks all the bell he hears is like funeral bells to him. On the other hand, Heaney saw his father crying on the porch is making him believe there must be some huge things have happened as this unusual event of his father’s crying happened even in his father has not been bothered by the funeral before. Moreover, when Heaney witnessed the parent's situation of his brother's death, he was stifled about this happened in facing both the physical and mental challenge he has ever had in his life while he goes to the bed to look at the dead body snowdrops and candles separated to his brother bedside. He has to digest the sudden loss of his brother despite his seems calmness, he can only express his anger about his brother's death and is justifiably angry at the waste of life that has occurred. When we look at Heaney’s father, a man who has “taken funerals in his stride”, cries on the porch after receiving such a tragic message from the family, he chose not to weep in front of his family but fails to help his tears eventually. It creates a difference between the traditional image of men, tending to suppress their emotions compared to women. In addition, we can see Heaney’s mother “held my hand in her coughed out angry tearless sighs” indicating the fact that she was trying to console his son, but she is in such a sense of despair that she was crying out of the death of their family. Two characters showed an outburst of extreme sadness upon this reaction. As Heaney is taken seriously by the adults unusually that the adults don’t ignore him and stand up when he enters the room. The trauma that Seamus experienced makes other people see him as a man, indicated such a tragedy that the Heaney’s family experienced about.
Kam Chak Fai, Jack Death is a traumatising event, a catalyst, that one could manifest a reaction that’s completely uncharacteristic of them. In Mid-Term Break, when the narrator returns from college, he sees his father weeping in front of the porch, presumably not wishing to show this side of him to whoever is in the house, Heaney recounts that his father often attends funerals with a stoic appearance but this one breaks him down to tears openly, a death in the family has such a traumatising effect on people that it subverts all societal expectation of how a man should never shed tears. Then it cuts to his mother where she holds the narrator’s hands coughing “angry tearless sighs” it could, once again, defy the gender roles in this kind of situation, or that she has cried all she could. Either way, she’s in no shape to offer any kind of comfort for the narrator like a parent would do in this situation, instead, she’s the one who needs help. Their world turned upside down just with one death, and the emotion within is shown to us rather than just being told to us. The death also forces his relatives or others to see the young narrator (school boy) as a man, taking him much more seriously, standing up and shaking his hands the moment he enters the house, this reaction most likely manifested from pity. Additionally, the narrator never does explicitly describe his reaction to the death of a family up until the final stanza by constantly using the f-sound, where he is filled with rage, claiming that the death of his brother is a damn waste because of how swift and sudden the death is, one reckless hit and that’s enough to completely ruin their daily lives, drowning in grievance and sorrow.
Chick Karen Tsz Yu, Karen The poem does not put an emphasis on the dead brother or accident; rather, it delineates different characters' state of emotion. Regarding different characters' reaction to the death in a family, the atmosphere is permeated with suspense that the bells remind the speaker of funeral bells. In other words, the child is inflicted, thinking about death and burial. When it comes to his father's reaction, it is bizarre for a man to weep because of the conventional mindset (men tend to weep less) ; nonetheless, his father relieves his emotion through crying, regardless of stereotypical images of men. What's more, death does not adversely affect father but he is heavily traumatized by the death of child, which can be shown from "he had always taken funerals in his stride". Besides, her mother is seized by feeling of anger and sorrow that results in crying so much that nearly no tears at all. As baby does not understand the circumstance, compared to the other characters in the poem,which indicates the contrast between them. For the emotional state of the child in the poem changing from the beginning to the end, "Counting bells knelling classes to a close." suggests his melancholic emotion , associating all bells he heard like funeral bells to him. Moreover, people tend to be oblivious of a child, who pay attention to him because of this tragedy. Although he is just a child, all the old men treat him seriously as an adult, making him feel awkward and uncomfortable. Additionally, the irony of this situation is that the mid-term break is the time,which allows students at boarding school to come home and visit the family, but ironically the child attends the funeral of his younger dead brother during the mid-term break. Finally, he sees his dead brother in a tranquil state, which can be revealed from "Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now.", whereas he is solemn about it in the last stanza and feels angry at the waste of life that has occurred.
This is Barron, Ng Sheung Huen (4187856) from class 419. The night after I stayed awake till dawn, so as the lights from downstairs skimming through my doorway. Winds howling through the tightly shut window, yet scorched tingling heat caused through my veins. No longer would I hear the shivering noise next to my room during this season, not anymore. We were finishing the supper we left from last night, cube steak, as they called it, just not the regular muffins and waffles that we usually have on a Sunday morning. I couldn't recall what my father and mother said, but I was just sitting there nodding slightly looking down on my plate. The baby was swarming down one mashed potato after another one, it was my father who stood up and went over to wipe his tiny stained face. And my mother was just sitting there, moving not the slightest, for none I could find looking through her hollow empty stare. By noon our neighbor knocked on our door, which they never once did, not even when we moved in. They brought us a chicken pot pie, my father smiled and welcomed them in, but mother just went upstairs without a sign, maybe to the room. They said to us, once again, “sorry for my trouble.” I felt uncomfortable with them being around, the chicken pot pie was warm but not within them I sense. I had lost count of how many more times they came over to visit us even to the day I went back to college. I heard day after day, "Thank you." Every now and then I wandered in front of my brother's room, least where he was, in the dead of night I would peek into the door lock, maybe hoping someone or something would show up, but none other than the verdant wall swallowed with an untenanted bed. At times father and mother went into and cleaned up the room, even when there was not a speck of dust. It was quiet, even for winter. I grabbed my brown leather coat and put on the grey wool hat my father always wears to work. Didn't snow much but the cold penetrated through my heart. The pack of snow nights before on the road had not yet melted, guessed it would only stack up piles after. Street lights on the road shedded upon the dust of snow falling off from hemlocks, making it looked like there was a thin layer of mist. Blurred but vividly, folks walking down the street, to work maybe, they probably recognized me as they moved the sideways the closer they get to me. I felt like Moses crossing the Red Sea like I was some kind of monster. Maybe indeed I am, I never cried after the incident, not even a single teardrop. It was not because I was trying to be a fortified role model as I'm the eldest, I felt not the pain, but lost, and anonymous hatred, for what? I did not know nor understand. I came across my neighbor's house, car parked neatly at their front door, the brightest velvet red I've seen covered by the crystalline snow, how ironic. The break was soon over, sooner than I expected, or how I experienced it. I doubted whether things would go back to normal, or perhaps that was what I was hoping for, exhausted I was. Ms. Green greeted me the day we returned, she was so nice as she ever was, it was she who informed me regarding the incident on that day and led me to the sick bay. Lessons went by and so did the knelling bells, it was not as loud and shrilling as I remembered, maybe they fixed it. After school, I revisited the college sick bay, it was a lot distinct when the gloaming sunlight pierced through the room, I recalled that morning the room was plain white, and now it looked shimmering. The school nurse was there, asking me if I needed any help. "I was looking for something I left," I replied, quickly glanced over the bed I once sat on and left. Would the box grow half afoot this year, I wondered. I wished.
It was unbearable to look at him for even one more second, so I went back to my room. The first thing I saw after I opened the door was my beige desk. I rushed forward to it and pushed everything to the floor. The table lamp shattered into pieces, while the papers were dancing in the air and fell onto the floor slowly. I kicked the chair as hard as I could, but I was not satisfied at all. Without hesitation, I used the wall as a punching bag, for God knew how long, until my parents came up, startled to find my knuckles covered with blood and stopped me. I did not know why I acted like that, I just felt like I had to do something, otherwise my body would burst like a balloon. Not feeling any pain, I bandaged my wound calmly. My parents kept glimpsing at me when we were having lunch. I was such a fool! I did not mean to place any more burden on my parents. Before they uttered anything, I grabbed the chance to assure them, “Don’t worry, I’m fine. Really.” Then no one spoke a single word, even the baby was quiet. I never realized that silence was really loud. I stared at the food on my plate, having no appetite at all. I put down my utensils and told my parents I was going for a walk. I was walking in the howling gale, had no idea where I wanted to go. The only thing I was sure was that I did not want to stay in my house. It was too suffocating. I stepped on thick layers of snow, whose whiteness forced me to recall all the surreal things that happened not long ago. The walls and bedsheets of the college sick bay, my neighbour’s car, the bandage, the snowdrops, the candles, and the face of my brother, which is the palest of all. At this moment, my numbness was gone. I started to feel pain coming from my knuckles. The pain forced me to accept the fact that this was not a nightmare, and I could never wake up from this. My hands were trembling with the overwhelming pain, but how was it comparable to the agony my brother felt when he got knocked by the car? The thought made me sick, but I could not stop myself from thinking of it. All kinds of emotions filled up my brain and I knew there was something wrong with me, but I did not know what it was. My heart was racing like a horse, and my breathing got heavier and heavier. My whole body was trembling so bad that I could not help but to kneel down, but I was sweating at the same time. My vision was also slowly constricting to a tunnel, and I felt like falling into an endless blackhole. Was I dying? Was this how dying felt like? I had no idea how long it lasted, but it felt like centuries to me. I returned to school earlier than usual. At home, I was always feeling out of place. I hated seeing my parents like that and I hated the feeling of emptiness. School was the only place where I could escape from all these dreadful things. I sat by the window of my dorm room, staring out. The snow was melting, and puddles were everywhere. Feeling bored, I picked a book to read, but something fell out when I opened it. I picked it up and my hand could not stop trembling. It was a photo of my brother and me, smiling and cuddling, probably taken a year ago. I still had vivid memories of us together, it was like yesterday, and it was all coming back to me now, but it was impossible to embrace him like that or see him running around ever again. I could not take my eyes off the photo, and my vision got blurry gradually. Tears were streaming down my face and dropped on the photo. For some reason, I felt like I could finally be honest with myself, and it was alright to cry, for as long as I wanted to.
A freezing windstorm arrived the day after the nightmarish funeral. It was quite common for a windstorm to come in the winter in Northern Ireland. However, that time, it was way colder than the previous windstorms that I had ever encountered before, which was nippy and chilly. I laid on my bed, covered myself with the duvet, and hoped for some kind of warmth that could somehow comfort me in deep. “You are the elder brother in your family, so it is your responsibility to always take care of your siblings and parents.” Similar thoughts had been running through my mind, from that moment when I heard the tragic news in the college. As soon as I graduated from my preschool, people in the village had already reminded me that I should act as a small adult to protect my family. I remembered it, I remembered it, I remembered it! And I knew I failed to do so. There were a lot of social norms in society back then. I was told that as a man, I could not cry in front of others, no matter how upset I was, how angry I was, or how painful I was. Therefore, the way how my parents processed their grief actually surprised me. I wanted to cry like my father, I wanted to be as angry as my mother. Dismally, the crowd just discomforted me and I was really uneasy. They came not because they were as blue as we were, but they felt like they had to. I had never imagined that the meaning of Mid-Autumn break could be turned upside down for me. Unlike the harmonious and warm-hearted days before, the way I spent the Mid-Autumn break that year was to attend the funeral of my younger brother, Christopher. Wasn't it ironic? I was supposed to come back home and share the happiness with all of my family members. I had already prepared some presents for them, which were unexpectedly useless and meaningless. When I looked at the gift that I originally bought for Christopher in a traditional store near my school as the Mid-Autumn gift since he had never traveled to other places before, I couldn't help but cry my eyes out. I had thought of various reactions that he may make after receiving this special and tailor-made toy. Unfortunately, I could never know how he would respond to my surprise. "Would God really bring us together some days?" I gazed at the moon, whispered to myself, wondered doubtfully and helplessly, with the blue gift box. The sunlight woke me up the next day. The moment when I opened my eyes, I saw something that kept lingering outside the window. It was a small butterfly, which was blue in color. It reminded me of Christopher because his favorite color was also blue. The windstorm had just passed and the temperature was still low. Without any more consideration, I opened the window and let it fly in. The butterfly seemed excited, I was surrounded by it for some minutes. Suddenly, it flew around the gift box and the butterfly laid down on it eventually. I was totally surprised. I lost my mind and called my parents. They came and saw what was happening. We broke into tears without saying a single word, hugging together, knowing that we were at least feeling better for some reason. We decided to leave the window open. Before the butterfly left in the evening, it hovered near the window again, looking like saying goodbye to us. We smiled for the very first time during that break and said farewell. Something emerged within my heart, which was hard to express in words, but I knew that it was hopeful. "Yes, he would." Religion may be the only way that could heal me and help me to cope with the tragedy. Death was closer than I originally thought and I just couldn't think of another measure to step out of the shadow back then. Before coming back to school, I buried Christopher's ashes with a seed on the grassland of the village, looking forward to the spring to come soon, hoping that I could still always take care of someone close to me, who would always live in my heart until I died.
Hey, this is Jasper, Ng Pui King. I have lost count of how many times the clock has ticked, how many sheep have crossed the fence, how long I had been tossing and turning tonight. This winter has been particularly unbearable, I had to crawl out of my bed a few times to turn up the heater. Still, I could not feel a touch of warmth in my veins. The wind has been howling for hours. And I have been shivering for hours and nothing could put me to sleep. My mother said I was the toughest out of us three. The cold never bothered me, I remembered sprinting in the snow last winter mid-term break with just my sweater on. My younger brother said I am bonkers, but my youngest brother had a good laugh about it. He has always been a jolly boy. Though it has only been a few years since his arrival to our family, the time we had was brilliant. Every time I came back from school after a long, dreadful semester, he would welcome me with the warmest hug. As a four-year-old, he never really cheesed me off; Indeed, I am grateful for the winter and summer we had gone through. As I walked down the memory lane, the sun slowly seamed through the blinds. I crawled out of bed and walked to the windows, welcomed with a yard entirely covered in snow. Everything was smothered in snow, it was almost dreamlike. The bench, the ash tree, and the swing, nothing was spared. The sunlight shining over the blanket of snow made everything seemed extra sparkly - yet almost blinding. Every corner, every inch of the neighborhood was covered in white as if the sky had poured down buckets and buckets of white paint over the night. If it is my usual self, I would have been elated and rushed out for a snowball fight with my brothers. But this sudden snowstorm, this sheet of white only reminded me of the sick bay I stayed at. The offputting white walls with rays of white lighting shading on the wall. It was hospital-like. I was told to stay and rest at the sick bay until my neighbors arrived. The room was like a white cube. With two beds and white blinds, the only less-offputting thing about the room was the worn wooden floor. I did not know what I was about to go through. No one taught us how to deal with loss in school. No one taught us how to survive a car accident in school. The sorrow and anger I faced, the white prison I rested at, everything was new to me. That morning was long. I never hated the color of white. It is a color of purity and innocence. The pope wears a white regalia. The brides wear a white dress. But this white, this white seemed stark. Cold and empty. This was the pale white that was on my brother’s face, the white which stood out across the room filled with dark attires of mourners and grief. I tried to shake it off my mind. Yet, it haunted me throughout the night. There was no color in his skin of white. Neither did my family’s faces, we were all smothered under his skin of white. That was a long night. The clock has ticked numerous times since I stood in front of the blazing white. I went downstairs to my parents’ faces, pale as my brother’s. Their pale seemed out of place in this house of colors, a home that used to showcase delights and chuffed faces of his. Today was a day where plates of Sunday roasts would be on the table. Instead, leftovers from last night were put on the plates. The room was silent like yesterday but with fewer weeps. We chucked the food down our throats, nobody had anything to utter. I then went back to my room and stared at how the world is covered, in this color of white that meant something only to us, something that we knew will linger on our minds. Those bloody white walls lingered on my mind. That snowstorm that I witnessed lingered on my mind. That pale face of my brother will always linger on my mind.
CHOY HIU YAN, CHLOE (4012594) The coffin, four feet long, each foot for each year that he has lived. The moment he was lying deadly, without any vitality, it was a scene that I would probably never forget. He was like someone else’s baby sleeping calmly, peacefully, silently, not at all like my little young brother. He used to be energetic, the trouble-maker at home, the annoying monster in our family. But, not now, no more. Perhaps, he would become someone else’s little brother or son in his new living place. And that was the reason why my father burst out tears on the porch and why my mother sighed and coughed angrily but tearless because the incident was like a robber robbed away their kid. The lid of the coffin started to close, it was supposed to be finished in just one second. However, it was not. For me, it was as long as the four seasons were gone, or even longer, like four years that we have been together. The lid of the coffin almost closed for one foot of coffin. My mum leaning on my father’s shoulder with nonstop tears. No one could stop her tears. No one could stop the car. No one could stop the click of closing the coffin. I kept staring at him, without any hope this time. It was such sarcasm. I could never forget the first time he came to our family. I was still studying in my boarding school, I could only return home during my mid-term break. My father drove me home from school. I was full of passion and hope to meet this newborn baby. The moment I opened the door and first saw him, he was sleeping peacefully in my mother’s arms. My mother passed him into my arm, in the meanwhile, it awakened him and drove him to sob. ‘Wah- wah- wah-’ I was extremely nervous and helpless, I did not know what should I do to comfort him. The only thing I could do for him is put him into my mother’s hug. Just like now, my mother was weeping but I did not know what could I do unless I could bring my little brother back to her. But I could not, I could not be the one who stop the box closing. The lid of the coffin almost closed for the second foot of the coffin. I was standing there alone, not as close as my parents hugging themselves. I stared at the coffin numbly without any emotion like the one who I used to be. I was supposed to be emotional right now, but I was not. I could not give any comforts to my parents. I could not give any reaction to the guests who apologized for our loss. Before he came to our family, I was alone. After he left our family, I was alone, again. If they had to apologize, is it supposed to be my big loss? I lost the spirit of my soul. I lost hope of my reality. I lost the only companion that I had in my world. Does it have to be like this? Be that cruel and brutal to me… I knew there was something shattered inside my soul. I was there, standing alone, but I thought you were never alone because when you’re gone. I have gone with you too! The lid of the coffin almost closed for the third foot of the coffin. We could not even see his half body anymore. My father’s eyes were already filled with tears. I guess this time he was just trying to depress his sadness of losing an important person in his life. He acted like a tough man this time just like who he used to be. He always told us men are supposed to cry less. Once during the mid-term break, my three years old little brother tried to persuade me not to back to the boarding school. He sobbed and asked me to go. The second I opened the door and took my luggage downstairs. He lied down and grabbed my legs and said “please don’t go!”. My father saw he was begging me and he explained to him patiently that his favorite brother has to study hard at school and will be backed in the coming mid-term break. “Men are supposed to cry less,” my father told him. He wiped away his tears and told us he will be a tough man. This is the last time I saw him at home, wiping his tears away but his eyes kept filling with tons of tears. At that time, I have to go. But this time, you have to go. Upon the click of closing the coffin, with just a clear ‘bang’ sound, it was just like the moment his life had been abrupted by that car. The car banged, took his life away. The lid banged, took him away from us. Will you come to see me when I have to back to school again? I wondered if you could tell with rains.
This poem is talking about the poet's end of childhood. Speaker is a young college boy who had been away at school and didn't meet his 4 years old brother for six weeks. One day, he got a message that his younger brother is dead by a car accident and that news made him be in a daze. At first line in a first stanza, the feeling of stunning is well expressed by what he is doing. He does not cry out loudly but spent the whole morning quietly counting bells in the sick bay. Of course, there is a big sorrow in his mind and we can feel it ironically by his quiet tone. But the most important part of this line is that he started to think about death very deeply in his mind. Before this morning, he didn't think of death seriously even though he saw many funerals taken by his father while growing up. Considering this, the death of his younger brother was a big shock that made him to grow up. It was literally 'Mid-term Break' in his whole life that made him to think again about how he lived and how to 'die', ironically meaning how to live from now on. This complicated situation is reinforced through time flows. The poet is reminding the day by counting times and it looks like presenting his growing process. He's complex feelings with sorrows for brother and thoughts about himself shows up in 'embarrassed'. This is only word that shows his feelings directly in this poem and it is presenting how it feels when you are in the accidental mid-term break. At the end, the speaker is realizing that his own childhood is ended by seeing a young dead brother who lived a short life. In front of a dead young boy, the speaker who lived a longer life and thinking about how to 'live' is not a young college boy anymore. ENG3379 Kimberly(Heijin Suh)
This poem is about a boy's mid-term break. The writer Heaney was supposed to enjoy his break as a student. However, something awful happened to him. His brother died because of a car crash. He spent his break participating his brother's funeral. Rite of passage ceremony of growing up means when a boy turns into a man. Heaney was supposed to be a carefree student as he was having his midterm break . In other words, he should be just a regular boy. However, there are clues in the poem showing that he was experiencing the rite of passage ceremony, meaning that he was treated like a man. The first clue us that he saw his father crying. Seeing his own father crying was not usual for Heaney, especially in a young age. Second clue is that old men were giving him handshakes, which made him uncomfortable because normally, the adults would just ignore a young kid. This emphasises on how the adults were seeing him the same level, as a grown-up. The third clue is that his mother was holding his hands, looking for comfort. It is very unusual for adults to seek for comfort from a young child. Therefore, we can tell that everyone treated him like he was a grown-up. The poem actually says the solemn of rite of passage ceremony of growing up. Being an adult means that things are serious. It indicates that the carefree attitude is unlikely to be shown when you grow up. The poem shows growing up carries more responsibilities such as hiding your emotions and comfort somebody else. Just like Heaney in the poem, he wrote a lot about other people, rather than his own emotion. In the last line, 'A four-foot box, a foot for every year.' shows us that Heaney is actually angry about the car crash. However, he chose to write it implicitly. I think the poem is saying that growing up means that you have to learn to hide your true feelings or emotions as you need to take more responsibilities such as taking care of others first.
Indeed, facing trauma is one of the ‘rite of passage’ of growing up. As seen in this poem, young Heaney was viewed as an adult, even though he was only in school when his brother was killed. Not only did the other relatives treat him with respect, saying things like ‘sorry for my trouble’, but they also said how he was ‘the eldest son’ and was ‘away from school ’, as if he was the second ‘man of the house’. Exactly why they treat young Heaney like this isn’t explicitly mentioned, but I do believe they hope he could cope with his brother’s death like how an adult would. In other words, they probably want to make young Heaney feel like an adult, so he would cope the trauma in a mature manner. Of course, merely facing traumatic events isn’t enough to complete the so-called ‘rite’ of growing up, as one also has to understand the trauma he/she had just endured, so he/she could learn to cope with it. In stanza 3, the baby (who might as well be Heaney’s other brother, since Heaney had a total of eight siblings) was facing the same traumatic event as young Heaney, but the way he acted (‘...cooed and laughed and rocked the pram…’) reflected his innocence, and that death meant nothing to it. In contrast, the adults, who had a very clear idea that a close one had been killed, were visibly in grief: his father cried on the porch, while his mother held his hand in sorrow, possibly to get comfort from him. Perhaps learning to understand and deal with trauma is the most important part of this sad but inevitable ‘rite of passage’. -Ian
When Heaney is at school, he attends the funeral of his little brother during Midterm break. The funeral is the “turning point”, in which Heaney is transformed to be in the know, a member of grown-ups. We get the idea fairly from the way adults treat him. The treatment he has been given signifies the maturity in his character. He used to be in the intermediate between the innocence of a baby and the experienced state like his father. It is a rough shift. The adults-in-waiting is deemed ready to take on responsibility, for being the oldest kid. Being treated seriously as a man has given an eccentric sense to the young Heaney. More duty is devolved to him. His father feels apologetic to him for the loss while his mother seeks comfort from him. Grief takes place when Heaney seeing the dead body of his young brother. Heaney seems to be more collected after the funeral day. It makes sense that his composure in apparent displays a sadness that has been buried deep inside. It is unfortunately true that without pain or obstacles, most people don’t change. When things seem too stagnant, Heaney starts to reflect and reaches adulthood. Part (which might be the childish part) of Heney is gone with the dead member of his family. Yet, for the best of growth, it is better to cope with loss and pain properly.
In Mid-term Break, the rite of passage is about taking up roles and responsibilities. Heaney’s role is first as a student and then as a son. With these two roles, he has to study hard and has to participate in family affairs, especially when his family is in trouble. Quickly he is given another role - the eldest son which may come along with the residual firstborn responsibilities. As the house is crammed with sorrow, Heaney may appear as the only consolation for his parents which has become more evident when his mother holds his hand in hers and “coughed out angry tearless sighs”. His crying father may also feel better when he sees Heaney is back. Moreover, at the moment when his parents are in their weaknesses, Heaney seems to be the toughest and he is the pillar of the family who could and has to prevent his family from further breakdowns. As it reaches stanzas 6 and 7, we know Heaney is a brother who misses and mourns his dead little brother. Heaney has been taking up several roles but the tragedy has then added a few more significant roles and responsibilities on his shoulders. The rite of passage is also unexpected and unprepared. Heaney never knows he needs to encounter all these beforehand. As those things suddenly comes, he must accept and has no way to reject. He must accept the handshakes from the old men as well as his mum’s request to hold his hands. There is little trace of Heaney’s emotions so we don’t know if he wants to grow up and be an adult or not. Probably deep down in his heart he doesn’t want that but in reality he is forced to grow up. The people around him may have already recognized him as adult. In others’ eyes, he is a “qualified” adult because he has gone through the rite of passage. However, we will never know if Heaney also sees himself as an adult after the tragedy. The rite of passage can change one’s identity from child to adult but may not change one’s mind from mature to immature. Angel Hon Nga Chi (4077520)
ENG3379 tutorial2 Eunice Hon Mid Term Break The death of the 4 years old brother is a big brow to Seamus Heaney and his family members. It indicates an important stage in his life, which is to become an adult, as the death of his brother forces him to grow up at once. Death is something unbearable for young school boy, but still Seamus Heaney needs to face it, and this makes him a man, instead of a kid anymore. Although he is not an adult physically, the old men and his family members start treating him like an adult. For example, the old men stand up and shake his hand and his mother holds his hand to obtain some comfort from him. It is because what Seamus Heaney has experienced is far more than a normal child, so they expect him to be brave enough to accept it and support his family, just like what a man does, in a young age. However, he feels embarrassed about being treated like a man, since he does not used to it. The run-on line that he uses in stanza 3 and 4 show that there is an overload of information for a school boy, as he is facing death for the very first time in a young age. It suggests that everything happens in a sudden way, hence he does not have time to digest what have imposed on him and grow up gradually. Therefore, the death of his brother is a turning point for him to change from a child to an adult.
In this poetry analysis by Dr. Andrew Barker, the contrast between the baby who ‘cooed and laughed and rocked the pram’ and all the adults who understand what’s going on leaves a deep impression on me and in my opinion, this contrast between innocence and experience also has a really close and successful connection with the rite of passage, which is actually a symbol of being mature and empathetic. I think this poem is more like a microfilm to show the process of being mature of every person, as the baby’s mood, the poet’s feeling and all the other adults’ behaviors can be seen as three steps of gradually being independent, responsible and of course, being older. First of all, as mentioned in the video, the baby is the only one that is happy because he doesn’t know what happened and he is too young to learn about the meaning of death. Undoubtedly, he is immature and all of us experienced this time period. After that, when a person becomes a young adult like the narrator in this poem, he may be taken seriously by the other adults. He may feel a little embarrassed initially but it is exactly the time for young adults to think about shoulder some responsibilities for his family and understand some serious issues, such as life and death. In this poem, old men stood up and shook the poet’s hand can be regarded as a rite of passage ceremony, and in our life, maybe this ceremony can be held in an invisible but still powerful way. As time goes by, everybody will grow into his or her middle age just like the narrator’s father and mother in this poem and we will surprisingly find that they become weaker and weaker. When they feel sad and helpless, they will need a shoulder to cry and a person to be by their sides. In this short poem, we can see that Seamus Heaney actually shows a person’s life and it is very meaningful and profound. (ENG3379-1 He Han Chun, Lucy 4072336)
Seamus Heaney shows readers that the rite of passage involves a remarkable change in a person’s psychological change. Rather than experiencing an official announcement for the change in ‘identity’, young Heaney undergoes the growth in psychological aspects of life. The first challenge that he has to deal with before entering the adulthood is the separation and death from his family member. There are several scenes in the poem reveal that young Heaney is no longer the immature schoolboy, instead, he is gradually going through the same incident as adults gone through. As mentioned in the video, we do not normally associate school bells with death while this time was to prove something terrifically different has happened. Therefore, the ‘classes’ may be a metaphor for lessons that life teaches him. The counting bells remind Heaney that his childhood innocence has come to an end and it’s now the time for him to face the crucial world growing up as an adult. Another clue can be found in the third stanza. The action of shaking hands with the old man can be interpreted into a special ritual that Heaney is now initiated into the adult world. Ironically, there is a contrast of the baby’s innocent joy with the sorrowful news of the death of a little boy. Young Heaney starts to understand the obligation that he needs to bear as being ‘the eldest’ son in the family. When his mother held his hand, it seems like the handover of responsibility or simply the sharing of the family burden. This can be overwhelming for a boy to overcome such a heart-breaking event. Apart from that, one impressively painful line can be shown towards the end of the poem. Six weeks passed since the day he left home, he never got the chance to say goodbye to his little brother. The death of Seamus Heaney’s younger brother marks a significant transition in his life while this is just the first step in his life-long journey. (ENG3379-1 CHAN Ho Kwan, Coco)
“Mid-term Break” deals with the scenario of a young child’s death and how Seamus Heaney, as a child, reacts to this incident. The emotional power of this poignant poem derives from the fact that Heaney is very much understated regarding his emotional response in this event. Yet, the poem is inevitably making Heaney to go through a rite of passage. His brother’s death marks a crucial occasion in Heaney’s life, forcing him to become an adult. There are a number of elements illustrated his difficulty and necessity in growing up. As the eldest son in the family, he is treated as an adult by his neighbours and is seen as a comfort to the family. He can no longer be a "child" anymore and should shoulder the responsibility as a man to take care of his family after this trauma. The third and fourth stanzas are linked by the description of Heaney’s feelings on people who had come to pay their respects. He feels embarrassed when the old men shake his hand as he has no idea how to handle this kind of adult means of communication. And indeed, it must have been uncomfortable for a young boy to find his role in this situation and unsure of how to react to such formality. The process of entering adulthood is inescapable, what differentiate is when and what makes you start to aware of the necessity of growing up and understanding the harsh reality around you. Just like what the title reveals, the "break" is referring to a broken family and family's grief at the young child's death and also indicating the end of Heaney's childhood through this rite of passage. ENG3379-Section 1 Lam Kun Kam, Tina
In this poem by Seamus Heaney, it is the first-person account of the experience of death for the first time. Normally, poems about death are always associated with lots of emotions. However, Heaney does not try to pour on the emotions. He is very muted, showing his calm mood. He focuses on describing others’ reactions to the shocking impact of the death of his little brother. For the first five stanzas, they are all the first hand observation of the people around in his house. For example, ‘At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived/With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.’ Although the atmosphere and tension are building, Heaney narrates the scene with little presence of his personal emotions.His feeling of embarrassment is only shown after meeting his father crying and getting handshake from old men. The sad death of his little brother is forcing Heaney to grow up, but the minimal expression of embarrassment suggests that it is the first time he experiences death of his relative, and that is why he does not know how to express his feelings of what feelings he should have. He finds it hard to face death, which is also the process of going through a rite of passage. Not only when his little brother dies marks the rite of passage that the poet has to go through, but also there is one thing that happen to him indicates he needs to grow up as an adult whether he likes it or not. That is how he is treated as an adult by the other adults, the “old men”. Normally when we are growing up, the adults only see us as kids or teens, they do not take us seriously. But in the poem, when old men stand up to shake hands with the poet, this action is kind of accepting him as an adult and it might means that it is the time he should feel some responsibilities. I like how the last few lines build the emotions up, revealing how easy it is to to die, from a single blow of a car bumper, but how hard the following grieving process as well as the rite of passage for Heaney to accept. I appreciate this poem so much as it does not intentionally pour on emotions to describe the tragedy which makes it much more realistic and terrible to the readers. ENG3379-3 Sze Hoi Lun, Helen
@@mycroftlectures Glad you liked it. Here's the longer edit of the same event. It may have been (one of) his last. A serendipitous pocket camera opportunity with a well tuned speaker nearby :) th-cam.com/video/3p6d6a-1-wA/w-d-xo.html and another event inaugurating a commemorative tapestry: th-cam.com/video/3g04EqlH_OA/w-d-xo.html
I am presenting it as if it's a short story, yes. That much should be obvious. I say that at the start. When you are teaching it's often useful to remember what you didn't know when you read the poem for the first time, as the students will be doing. And this particular poem has the deliberate narrative structure of a short story. It has a pay-off that is not revealed until the end. Hence to reveal the "what happened" or "whodunnit" if you will, is to negate the effect Heaney is going for, and gets, from his first readers, which we, as teachers, tend to forget the thousandth time we read the piece. You don't start the poem by saying, this is about a poet going home to attend the wake of his brother who died in a car crash, unless you want to ruin that discovery for the reader.
This litrally saved my from failing my junior cert tomorrow very helpful 😊
Very much appreciated Dr. Barker. I haven't read any Irish poetry since my Leaving Certificate 10 years ago. You explained more about this poem in 35 minutes than I learned during these years. I will continue to reference your lectures as I read more poetry.
Fantastic, Thank you Dr. Barker for the amazing insight on the poem. I will be listening to more of your poem lectures.
I like the interpretation of “f” sounds showing anger of the speaker, but I also think of the “f” sounds as a yell of frustration. Throughout the poem, the speaker describes this tragic event from a detached angle, seeing his father cry; hands being held by his mother who sighs with angry coughs. Unlike his parents, he does not know how to react on his brother’s death. The last line can be a subtle cry for awareness to his frustration, of a boy who is too young to handle his brother’s death.
Wonderful video, I think about the sixth and seven stanzas a lot when talking about the appearance of Heaney's brother. As you mentioned, the poem used sibilance a lot in order to create the quietness in the wake of his brother's death. But "poppy bruise" not only stands out after Heaney has described a child-like innocence, it also disrupts the pattern with its "p" and "b" sound, it seems to match with his latter anger implied in the last line. "Wearing a poppy bruise" also doesn't sound ugly and as if it will fade in a matter of time, when in fact it would not.
One of the interested longer poems that were beautifully decorated by a man having blue eyes, red curly hair and a tremendous physique. Every morning after offering my prayers, I sat beside my mother, who does not understand the language but I translate having learned a stanza then she feels comfortable. It is a very nice poem that can touch the heart of the reader.
I have sat in that sick-bay. As a boy, I rang that bell that rings out across the school and across the city of Derry. Strange days.
Who's else is here just for the poem? (Without a test or anything)
@Meagher Boys I would happily give away my sanity for the words and wisdom of Heaney. I just guess you can't relate.
🤚🤚 I am Will. How about you?🤔🤔
Interesting lecture on a Heaney poem I hadn't read before. If we allow for the 'voice' of a poem to belong to a 'persona' and not to equate the poem directly with the poet, regardless of how biographical the poem appears to be, then I don't see that any information about Heaney's parents ownership of a car necessarily dilutes the power of the line about the neighbours driving him home. The line still holds the full force of its mystery intact by virtue of the fact that we know or suspect through poetic convention that the poet is setting up an instance of narrative tension at this juncture. Because the idea that the persona's parents don't own a car is banal and rather literal, we automatically reject it in favour of some other more interesting reason, which is the second one you mention; that his parents are traumatised by a death. Knowing about Heaney's true life parents shouldn't affect a reader's understanding of this line at all. The presentation of how anger is embedded in the final lines is effective and moving.
Thank you so much for such a wonderful talk on this beautiful poem. Definitely will be reading more of Heaney. This brought me to tears.
Dear sir, please upload more lectures on great poetic works.
Your lectures helped me appreciate English poetry.
A mother is frequently the backbone of the family, yet equally yoked with her husband,
the Father. As the Mother, with her multitasking abilities, to me means 'tearless sighs'
is her masking the pain on behalf of other family members: especially of her precious
young son; a treasured son, as giving him a school/college education, a sacrifice of not
having his presence at home: perhaps he personifies another kind of loss, relieving her
of other grief and loss she had felt in him. Her coughing, is the outward sound of her
keeping back her grief and tears, inwardly kept, yet fighting against her wishes.
Yes, I imagine she cried for her child, endlessly, lost to death; a life, a part of her, and the
pain she found almost too hard to endure, even to trying to lock-in, a loss taken through
an accident not of ill health; an unprepared-for deep shock.
All the more poignant as based on a true experience of Heaney: deeply moving, also of
an intense, yet painful beauty.
The final line 'A four foot box, a foot for every year.' really gives The space to grieve with
him. Heartfelt, both wonderfully and tragically explained.
That said, I understand the anger expressed in the intended sounding of the alliterative
sequence; makes perfect sense as a level of pain of a needless loss of life, expressed.
A tremendous and much loved Poet in Seamus Heaney.
I very much agree with you.
“Whispers inform strangers I was the eldest”
This line puts me right in that room. Such simplistic yet vivid language
Agreed.
I just want to say going to funerals as a kid is a whole lot different from going to one as an adult. My grandpa passed away when I was 5, and I knew nothing about death back then: I saw his funeral as just a 'fancy dress-up event', and I even had the audacity to play with my cousin. Maybe this 'rite of passage' isn't just facing trauma; being able to understand the trauma you've just faced is a part of it too.
Very excellent lecture. Only your interpretation of the "F" sound in the last line did I find frivolous.
Love the hair Dr. Baker! Very 19th century!!
😂 once you see it, you can’t unsee it!
A four foot box, a foot for every year.
You miss the importance of the neighbors driving him home. This is a standard practice in Ireland even when the bereaved owned cars of their own. Neighbors take on certain duties. Picking ppl up at airports, train stations etc, cooking meals, milking cows. Seeing someone's neighbors at a school was more grave than seeing ones parents, almost like US military arriving to announce a battlefield death. The most important of these serious duties neighbors volunteer to do is digging the grave. This is a privilege reserved for close friends and neighbors.
This is an excellent review, but I'd like to correct you on 2 minor points. 1. I went to that school and, yes the big bell still rang (1989 - 1991) when it was the end of the period with a "ding-dong", although electronically clanged I think, by then. It's now Lumen Christi College. And Mr. Walls taught us that poem in Bishop Street in the old nurse's office he mentions in the poem. 2. He'd have pronounced it, "stahnched", to resemble "bandaged", not like, "stawnched". Otherwise, love the video! Well done!
Thanks. Great story about being taught the poem in the nurses office. Out of interest, I'm trying to get my head round the pronunciation of staunched, which I'm totally prepared to believe I pronounce incorrectly. Are you saying the first A in each word, staunched and bandaged, has an internal rhyme? I go for the internal rhyme with corpse in my pronunciation of 'stawnched' and 'cawpse'. Pronounciation-wise I'm willing to back someone else over myself most of the time, as any phonetic rendering of the way I speak always stands against me.
@@mycroftlectures Yes, stahnched, with a wide A.
@@mycroftlectures You can hear the great man himself here: th-cam.com/video/uF0U0pVK0bk/w-d-xo.html
This really helped for my exam on Friday. Thank you :)
This lecture is fascinating. I previously thought I knew every aspect of this poem. However I missed a few important points which Andrew pointed out. I missed the significance of KNELLING And the right of passage. I have my own little private knowledge to this piece. I sat in that same sick bay in st collumbs college Derry after I sat on a bee. Put on my seat as a prank. I remember thinking this is where seamus Heaney sat, waiting for the lift home. The sick bay is very small very quiet. A lonely place
Cool, man. Thanks. Is the sick bay unchanged?
@@mycroftlectures it was so long ago. Circa 1981. It stuck me as slightly antiquated. (The sick bay) I am sure u are aware that st columbs college was run by the clergy at that time. Heaney was boarding there. Boarding has now stopped. Even in my day it was a pretty disciplined place. It’s motto translated from the Latin is “seek ye first the kingdom of god”.
this is fantastic thank you this has helped me understand the poem much more
This definitely will be useful for exams!! Thank you for doing this!!
Lily Granger we had no TH-cam for our exams ! Not fair!! 😆
Wonderful lecture/explication. TU
Takes me down to memory lane, i did this poem when i was doing grade 8
I have no qualification to comment on poetry. But I remember some people in literary circles critised the final line. I cannot remember accurately their argument but I seem to recall they viewed it as cheap. But personally I think it is dramatic and beautiful
Beautiful lecture and reading... thank you.
Thank you for this explanation! Especially the tearless sighs you did haha
I poem written in black and white, but full of grey. What colour death, white of coarse. Nothing bright, just candle light. With only the innocent making happy sound,s. Many thanks for your enjoyable illumination of a moving scene.
thanks for this video, you really helped by making this easy to understand
Excellently explained Dr.Parker keep it coming👌
Nice analysis. I think that the baby could be a in contrast with the crying father, but also with the young brother who is dead. If he were to be alive, he would be just like that kid still carelessly laughing. Well that is just what I think.
+xiao yu Absolutely.
Has everyone, seeing his father deeply weeping, especially when you are young, forgot or minimize that moment?
It is a growing moment, for Ideals, for Death, for Love, for Joy, after an intense Rath episode, does it matter?
I would assume that the father is outside in the porch because he does not want members of his family to see him weeping.
here before my exam
im going to ace this for sure 😭
Good luck.
@@mycroftlectures thank you ! forever grateful ❤️
This one is very painful to read and listen to.
Quiet short yet rich in poetic devices
I think the poem as a whole could be seen as the rite of passage of the poet from the fact that the poet studied in the college signified that he was a young adult, to old adults interacted with him and treated him as a man, to the fact that his mother needed his comfort and help as families tended to help children to mourn but in this case, she could not do so and she could not turn to the family figure (the dad) as he was crying in the porch which left the poet as the pillar of the house, and to the ways the poet treated death. Moreover, the title "Mid-Term Break" has different meanings. Literally, it was a break or a holiday from school that allowed the poet to get home. But I also believe that the break was also caused by the fact that his brother was killed. Also, I believe that the final line was said in bitter and sad as it was a waste for such young child to die. I do not believe that it was said in anger but your analysis gave it a new perspective but it raised the question: is the emphasizing on stressing the "f" sounds generally lead to profanity? Could it mean other things?
the bestest ever lecture on the subject and the poem i was looking for. the way sir explained those unfamiliar words like thou and thee became easier all credit goes to you sir. tonnes of thanks to you.... you may be of great help to all those students of MA English who like me find themself weaker in poetry section..... thanks
Literature on Children, 2021. "It can be argued that in Mid-Term Break two children die. What causes the end of childhood in the poem?"
Hera, Chan Pui Ki (4064389)
“It can be argued that in Mid-term Break, two children die. What causes the end of childhood in Mid-term Break?”
This poem can be seen as a poem of the death of two children since the mid-term break is a poem about a child who comes home for a funeral of his beloved younger brother during the mid-term break but the mid-term break here is not a joyful occasion. It can be argued that two children died in this poem since the younger brother of the author is physically dead while the child faced the death of his childhood with his grief towards the death of his young brother. In the poem The Pond, the author faced the death of his childhood gradually. In this poem, the poet sat at the steep edges of the pond and watched the carps when he was young. As the author grew older, the water level came down from time to time in the course of natural changes and he could see the carps struggling to breathe and they died. The carps in the pond were associated with the poet’s childhood since they were part of the poet's childhood memories. The last line of the poem “in such a pond a child might frown” echoes with the notion of the death of childhood. Similarly, in the mid-term break, the child faced the death of his childhood by knowing that his younger brother was dead since his childhood would be no longer the same as the past.
Although the child does not experience the tragic accident in the first few stanzas, his sadness grew from time to time. At the first stanza, the child sat in the college sick bay and waited for his neighbours to drive him home, up to this point, nothing dramatic happened. In the second stanza, the child noticed his father's reactions to somebody’s funeral and Big Jam Evans said it was a hard blow this time. It shows that it is unusual since his father has attended funerals before, and “he had always taken funerals in his stride” but this time should be something more serious and exceptional since he could not keep his calmness. In the third and fourth stanza, the child felt embarrassed by the strangers’ greetings and apologies since the boy might be a little bit confused but one had a sense that something tragic has happened. The emotion gets intense in the fifth stanza that the mother coughed out angry tearless sighs since she is so frustrated yet does not know what else she can do. At this point, the sadness which is depicted by the reactions of the family members became stronger. The feeling of loss came suddenly when the child finally knew his young brother’s death when he saw his brother wearing “a poppy bruise on his left temple”. The corpse was almost colourless and it was his first time to see the dead body of his beloved brother. “No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear” is an ironic line to depict the child’s helplessness and frustration. Besides, he noticed that the four-foot coffin indicated the death of a kid. The final line comes with strong emotion with many stressed syllables /f/ in “A four-foot box, a foot for every year”, to show the child frustration toward the sudden death of his younger brother.
Lau Hung Ying, Karen (4169971)
While Heaney’s brother was killed by a car and physically died when he was 4 years old, the unusual adults’ means of communications around Heaney, together with his parents’ unconventional reactions brings his childhood to the end. The repetition of hands demonstrates that Heaney is passed from hand-to-hand by various adults, including his neighbours, his father, relatives, some strangers and his mother. First, it is weird that he is driven home by his neighbors but not his parents. When he arrives on the porch, he is at the entrance of the adult world. His parents’ abnormal reactions upend the traditional gender roles. According to the social norm, men are supposed to be stoic and able to bear grief silently while women would openly express their emotions. However, his father is openly crying while his mother is tearless, failing to articulate herself. It is rare for a child to see his father weeping. In stanza 2, the assonance of the /i/ sound connects ‘crying’ and ‘stride’ which creates a contrast. Despite being composed at funerals before, this time, his father could not control his profound sadness of losing a son. Additionally, his mother is seeking comfort from Heaney while exhaling angry tearless sighs. Their family roles are interchanged. Parents usually hold their children’s hands to protect them. In addition, when those strangers murmur that Heaney is the eldest, it seems that Heaney has to bear the responsibility to take care of his family from now on. Despite coming across with different adults, nobody directly tells him the truth. For example, Big Jim describes it euphemistically as ‘a hard blow’. He may find it strange because adults usually use straightforward language to communicate with children. Also, a sense of secrecy is created when people whisper behind him. Usually, children would directly ask adults whatever they do not understand but Heaney does not do so in this solemn situation. This demonstrates that he is losing his innocence, awaring that something is seriously wrong. The unknowing baby who is the only one makes loud utterances shows big contrast. Later, the old men suddenly treat him as a man instead of a child. He was embarrassed by these adults’ means of communication because he has just started transforming from a child to an adult. He is not yet a man so he is bewildered, wondering how to react when relatives formally shake his hands, and why people talk around him. These adults usher him to discover the truth by himself.
Then, Heaney’s’ first experience of the reality of death in the room alone demonstrates the induction into the adult world. He is no longer accompanied by adults when facing uncertainties and fears. Although a school usually represents a ‘safe’ area, he is no longer fully protected from the hard truth. He is not having classes as usual. Instead, he is waiting alone in the sick bay. When he replaces the word ‘ringing’ with ‘knelling’, it implies that he has acquired some knowledge about death. Apart from their usual role in everyday routine, the school bells bring additional meanings to him, namely funerals. His perceptions towards the world become more complicated. Later, he gets closer to the removal of the sense of humanity when seeing the stanched and bandaged corpse. Finally, he visits the bedside alone. The spiritual religious symbols, namely the snowdrops and candles could not console him as reflected by ‘soothed the bedside’. He is inundated with a multitude of feelings when visiting his dead brother. He wants to deny the fact at first shown by the word choice 'wearing as if the bruise could be taken off, as well as using ‘four-foot box’ rather than ‘coffin’ in stanza 7. Simultaneously, he feels guilty because he was away when the accident happened, which is exemplified by the phase ‘for the first time in six weeks’ in stanza 6. His anger, possibly at himself or the driver, is further illustrated by the deliberate stress on the ‘f’ sound in the final line. After having this first-hand experience, he would recognize that the ‘real’ world is not as rational and ordered as childhood’s ones. Uncertainties could knock people out of their daily routines like he temporarily leaves school to attend his brother’s funeral. Also, matters in adulthood are not as ordered or planned as the social norm. Someone who is ‘big’ like Big James or other adults may sometimes find it hard to confront tragedy. To conclude, in Mid-term Break, Heaney is leaving the protected world and is exposed to the truth of the adult world.
Kwok Hau Yi, Sandy 4055663
Mid-term Break can be argued that two children die which we can see that Heaney’s little brother was dead due to a car accident before his mid-term break. It is the first child to die in Mid-term Break. The second child, who dies in the Mid-term Break is mentally dead when he faces the death of his loved one. He was too young to face the death of his brother and experienced the cruelty of life at his young age, which changes him forever. In the poem, from stanza to stanza, we could see the emotions have grown stronger and stronger. He was sad, but he was a bit confused about his sadness in the first place. When he was home, he saw his father cried on the porch. The reaction of his father shows the trauma that he is going is hard to handle. His mother could not comfort Heaney, who was suffering the same as her. His mother can only rely on Heaney. He only saw the sadness of his family, but he didn’t express his own feelings. He only knew that it was weird that everyone was looking at him and his parents cannot control their grief. But later in the funeral, he saw the corpse of his brother, the emotions of Heaney have become vivid. The sorrow and anger have been expressed when he sees his brother’s pale face. These changes in his life have ended his childhood. He is no longer a child since he has seen the cruelty of life, the death of his loved one. He needs to handle his grief towards his brother's death. It means that this mid-term break has changed his life forever. So, in Mid-term Break, it can be argued that two children die. Heaney’s little brother died physically in a car accident and his childhood also died in his brother’s funeral.
It is similar to The Pond, which also mentions the theme of the death of childhood. In The Pond, the poet has used the symbols of ‘literal light’ and ‘seeming light’ to represent the children’s imagination and the death of childhood respectively. The poet used to see ‘seeming light’ when he looks into the pond, which suggests that he has his imagination towards to world. However, when the poet grows up, he starts to see the cruelty of nature as well as his life, he lost his imagination. Then, he can only see ‘literal lights’, which represents the end of his childhood. As he has seen the reality of life, he learns that the pond is not pure imagination anymore as the pond is full of deaths. In Mid-term Break, Heaney was an ordinary child who comes home to stay with his family during the mid-term break. However, the car accident which killed his little brother also killed his childhood. He encountered his brother’s funeral and we can see his grief. ‘A four-foot box, a foot for every year.’ His brother dies at a very young age and he is angry about his brother’s death which he cannot change this truthful reality that life is so vulnerable. The death of his brother triggers the end of Heaney’s childhood, as he sees the vulnerability of life and he no longer is a child, but able to help his parents to get through with the grief and sorrow of the loss of a loved one.
Tan Kai Teck Desmond (4198776)
It can be argued that in Mid-term Break, two children die. What causes the end of childhood in Mid-term Break?
Here we have a poem describing firstly the death of the poet’s younger brother after a tragic car accident and secondly the death of the poet’s childhood after witnessing death. As the video has explained very well how the poem talked about the death of his brother, the following shall focus on the death of Seamus’s childhood and how the poem hints at this. We often associate childhood with innocence when the child is simple and pure. Their lack of knowledge and awareness of reality protects them from worries and concerns. The 17th Century philosopher John Locke once suggested that we are all born with a “blank slate”. As we gain knowledge through education, we gradually gain awareness but at the same time become hardened. We are not as easily excited by simple things, we become cautious (Or “smarter”) and more pessimistic etc. By this time, we would often think of the person having become an adult, and his childish thoughts/childhood has died. Besides education, this change can be initiated by experience, often a disturbing, perhaps even traumatic one. In this case, the death of the poet’s brother is like a violent wake-up call from a beautiful dream, where everything is pure and simple. Possibly before this time his life was dominated by his school life, sports like any other boy. In a way, the change in mental state shows how the child Heaney is crushed and died. In the second stanza, rather than going forward to console his father, he seemed puzzled, comparing to how his father was in other funerals, “taken funerals in his stride”. Then in the 3rd stanza, he is “embarrassed” by the standing recognition given to him by the adults in the room. As explained in the video, this is a rite of passage for the young Heaney, but instead of feeling even more saddened, he is embarrassed. With these points, I would like to argue that Seamus’s child has not completely died yet, as it has not shown that he is emotionally impacted by this event yet, at least not like his parents. He feels the impact of his brother’s death, but not as strong as to change him yet.
We see the impact in the final two stanzas, when the poet lay eyes on the lifeless body of his brother. The last line of stanza 6 is quite powerful as he mentions seeing him for the first time in six weeks (He was in boarding school). Death has forced him to question the fragility of human life. Six weeks ago, he was perhaps spending time with a joyful brother, now he is a body on the bed, so tranquil yet lifeless. New feelings take over the poet, the sibilance and the final stresses on the “f” pronunciation suggest regret, which fuses into anger, perhaps also at himself, for not spending time with his brother more. The sight of his brother’s tranquil death, like an ice-cold slap across the face, brought forth such matured emotions. Death and everything else immediately seemed so final, sudden, and random. There is no “Happily Ever After”, his brother doesn’t live forever and neither does he nor anyone he cares about. All his time and happiness with his younger brother has meant nothing, led to this scene, him lying peacefully with only a bruise that looks so harmless from the outside. It is safe to say that this scene would scar him for life. Then finally the line “A four-foot box, a foot for every year” may suggest the poet asking an existential question. The child Seamus Heaney, by the end of the poem, has died, replaced by someone darker, more cynical, and complex. As mentioned in the video as well, the title Mid-Term Break suggests irony, complex language that children or people with a simple heart might find difficult to comprehend. This ironic title might suggest how this event has thrown away most of his childish beliefs; the irreversible fact of death has killed his brother, and ironically himself (As a child), even though he was not involved in the car accident.
(By the way, you probably don't want to hear this...but this is actually a really nice video!)
Hillary CHAN (4181412)
"It can be argued that in Mid-term Break, two children die. What causes the end of childhood in Mid-term Beak? In the poem The Pond, we looked at the death of childhood, that moment where the child becomes an adult.
In the poem, literally, there is only one child physically died due to the car accident while it can also be argued that the voice died as well, owing to the disappearance, and ending of his childhood. The first thing we had to identify is what constitutes one's childhood? Protection from the elder, naivety, body growth(size) and how they treat the surroundings. A child is being protected by all the love with his parents, forgiven by all the mistakes they have made due to naiveness, growing rapidly in size, and treating everything and incidents with guidance. The voice lost the constituents of childhood gradually and faced the cruelty of being an adult once he was sent back home during the mid-term break. In the first place, without his parent companion, he was drove back to his home by a neighbour when he was in the college sick bay for the whole morning. It is uncommon that parent not picking their child up from school when they are ill at school, which indicates that they are busy with something more important than their child's sickness, although it is expected that neighbour take up the responsibility to bring back pupils home after school. He is no longer the priority of his parent and started losing protection even he was sick. The mournful description of 'knelling' sound also foreshadows a funeral upcoming. In the past, adults seldom reveal their true emotion to the kids in order not to let them concern. In stanza 2,4,5, his father was 'crying' in the porch, Big Jim Evans told him 'it was a hard blow' and his mother 'coughed out angry tearless sigh', all of these behaviors establish a sorrowful atmosphere within the house and the attendants of funerals. In other words, the exposure of adults' emotion and the 'whispers informed strangers I was the eldest' becomes the evidence that they treated the voice as a grown-up that can share grief with and echoes the message that the childhood of the voice had been ended. Comparing it with the only child in the house which is the baby, his 'cooed and laughed and rocked the pram' is nothing related to the painful tragedy of the deceased and the baby did not know what is going on.
What is more, 'with the corpse' clearly shows his younger brother's physical death. The voice had to face life's cruelty and how vulnerable one is through the first funeral that his loved one as the main character. In addition, 'for the first time in six weeks. Paler now', as he was away from his home, the next meeting with his brother was already after his death, being pale as a dead body. His young brother's vigorous, active face contrast with the spiritless and pale deceased, awakens him from his unspoiled naivety of being a child. Besides, 'A four foot box, a foot for every year' portrays child's physical growth, when the boy died, the growth also stopped. The 'f' sound in the final stanza assimilates the furious emotion triggered by the unpredicted death of his younger brother. The voice is no longer the innocent child protected by his parents and kept away from all the tragic news. His understanding of the idea of death and the first encounter of loved ones' death forced him to grow and end his childhood and at last 'died' mentally.
Great listen. Disagree with Heaneys father being in the porch to hide his emotion. Much the opposite. The "wake" is taking place as young Heaney arrives home, his father is in the porch to meet people as they come to visit and pay their respects. Very much a front and center position in all that is going on.
Fair point, that. I have to agree. He's outside of the main throng of people in the house, but for what I say to be unquestionably true, it would make more sense for him to be the back garden, in the shed, or something, wouldn't it?
That's right yes. Although you could dispute whether the wake has actually begun, as the corpse is not present when Heaney arrives. Probably just very close family and neighbours at this stage (believe Jim Evans lived directly opposite the Heaneys).
amazing analysis
Thank u sooo much sir.... It was really very helpful, love from India
thank you,Dr Andrew， it is very helpfull ~
Text and Experience 2020.
Tan Kai Teck Desmond (4198776)
How does the emotional state of the child in the poem change from the beginning to the end?
So much has changed throughout the poem. As the lecture has pointed out, it is a rite of passage for the author, from the childish innocence to experiencing death. At the beginning, we see the author, a kid who knows nothing of trauma or sadness that defines our lives. He is sitting there in the sick bay of the school. The news has reached him alright and he is sad, but there seemed to be little evidence to suggest that this has yet to hit him hard. In the second stanza, he starts to realize that his parents, strong in their images, have been utterly broken. Here he starts to realize that everyone, including himself, is vulnerable to trauma. Yet in the third stanza, the poem focuses on how embarrassed the author was as strangers come up to shake his hand and give them their condolences. Here enjambment serves a beautiful purpose as they imitate the massive load of information that comes crashing down on the young author. At this moment he is more confused than sad. In the fourth stanza, his mother holds him for comfort. He feels the strong emotion emanating from everything around him, but he has yet to experience it.
It is in the last three stanzas then the child’s rite into some form of maturity is complete. As he sees his four year old brother for the first time since he left for school. The poem employs long vowels and sibilance to imitate the tranquillity of the moment, and perhaps the idea that the child dreads this moment, where he would see an empty shell of his brother, covered with tributes to his short life. The child experiences first-hand the effect of death. However, I do not think that the child is angry at how short or wasteful his death was. The child compares the four foot box to his cot, how close in size they resemble; one made for birth, while the other made for death. This is a lament. A lament to how fate has in stall for his brother, and for himself. It almost seems like the cot is a sign of the impending coffin that his brother will be resting in. He ends with this powerful sentence: “A four foot box, a foot for every year.” This is perhaps a countdown to his brother’s eventual end. He grows a foot every year, only to be moved into a coffin of the perfect size. Here the child’s emotional state turns from innocence, confusion, to a mixture of anger, sadness and a lament for the fragility of life. I think there is a slight hint at an existential crisis the child is experiencing. Will there be a box for him? How long will his box be?
CHENG Cheuk Yiu Cherub 4130839
I think this poem makes me think that Heaney might have already attended other funerals before and he was familiar with what happened on that day. Heaney could tell that his dad always took funerals in stride and he was quite conscious with the time. He was counting the bells, he remembered it was 2 and it was 10 o’clock. He knew it had been 6 weeks. I feel like Heaney was prepared for the day, he knew what would happen at certain time and he was following the plan. I think if we remove words relating to “school” and “drove me home”, I feel like he was acting like a regular adult. He looks prepared.
I think generally the child had been melancholy throughout the poem and only the hand-shaking part shows me that he was embarrassed and annoyed. I also think Heaney was quite anxious during the funeral because he did not mention what he was doing at the funeral. We know his father was crying and his mother was sighing. There was no information as to what happened to Heaney so I think he was pretty anxious at that time that he did not know how to react (and of course he was not experienced in the situation). I think Heaney would have guessed what would happen during a funeral and how one’s father & mother would act like when it comes to losing their son because everyone should have sort of predicted what would happen during a funeral so he was not shocked with their reaction and I do not think his parents' reaction would account for his emotional state.
Lam Wai Sum Phronesis (4074243)
“How does the emotional state of the child in the poem change from the beginning to the end?”
I would say that the child has a conspicuous change in terms of his emotional state. His emotion towards the death of his brother changed from being in despair passively to being active and irritated and angry throughout the development of the poem. From the beginning of the poem, we can see that the emotion of the child was constantly shaped or depicted through the surroundings. He sat in the college sick bay in despair, hearing the sound of bells knelling and that he was drove home by his neighbor; And then he saw his father crying, which was unusual, and the strangers came to shake his hand, also his mother holding his hand trying to get comfort. He was involved within all these actions, but he is not the one who initiate these actions. The writer did not write much about how exactly the child feels which seems to me, his emotion was quite passive, until the sixth stanza.
The child went up to the room where his brother’s corpse is, observing his bruise, using the serenity (snowdrops and candles) scene to make a big contrast between the beautiful and peaceful environment and the tragic situation occurred. Within the last stanza, describing his ‘poppy bruise’ and how he laid in the coffin, and the sentence ‘the bumper knocked him clear’, it outlines how innocent his brother was, making a perfect sense of the anger and irritation felt by the writer in the last sentence. As the lecture has pointed out, the writer emphasized the ‘f- ‘sound, assuming that the writer is ‘justifiably angry’. He was irritated and angry about the innocent life being killed rather than in despair from the beginning of the poem.
“How does the emotional state of the child in the poem change from the beginning to the end?”
Hera, Chan Pui Ki (4064389)
Many emotions are involved, which progress from grief to frustration.
The child in the poem shows his grief towards the death of his young brother, although the poem does not address the tragic accident directly, it depicts the mourning by capturing the funeral atmosphere and the reactions of the family in a subtle and sensitive way. The poem begins with the title “ Mid-term Break” to describe the daily routine of an innocent young who does not know about death. In the first stanza, the boy sits in the college sick bay, and “Counting bells knelling classes to a close.”, which here symbolizes the funeral bell and death, which shows the atmosphere gets more dreadful.
The boy might be a little bit confused but one has a sense that something tragic has happened. In the second stanza, it shows that it is unusual since his father has attended funerals before, and “he had always taken funerals in his stride”, yet it is a “big blow” for him since it is a big hit to them and it moves his father, while the boy is embarrassed by the “By old men standing up to shake my hand” since he does not know how to act, it implies he is so young and innocent to face death in his childhood, he does not even know who is dead in this case.
The emotion gets intense in stanza four, the mother cannot confront the death of her beloved. She coughed out angry tearless sighs since she is so frustrated yet does not know what else she can do. At this point, the sadness is still depicted by the reactions of the family member, the boy still does not know how to act in this situation. Finally, the boy finally knows that his young brother’s death when he sees his brother is' ' Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple”, it implies that the bruise is something temporary and that it can be removed at some point, and while the boy sees the dead body, it reminds him of his younger baby brother sleeping in the cot. It is broken-hearted to notice that the four-foot coffin is very small, which we know must be the death of someone young. The final line comes with strong emotion with many stressed syllables /f/ in “A four-foot box, a foot for every year”, to show the frustration toward the vulnerability of life and the sudden death of his brother who supposes to live and grow happily with his family.
Chong Hoi Kwo 4084248
The Mid-Term Break is a poem about a child who comes home for a funeral of his loved one during mid-term break, rather than having a fun vacation. The emotional state of the child overflows throughout the journey home which appears to have overwhelmed him. The poem begins with the child staying at the sick room at school and associating the school bell with the funeral bell, suggesting that the child has gone through something devastating and depressing. As soon as he gets home, he realises what he is dealing with is something traumatic, traumatic enough to see his otherwise stoic father cry. The sense of unfamiliarity and awkwardness is further intensified when the seniors value his appearance, stands up for him and shake hands with him, treating him as their peer. However, to the child, all he feels is embarrassment, of not knowing what to do. The unfamiliarity to the adults’ condolence and being overloaded by what he has encountered may suggest he is not fully prepared to become a grown-up. Another example is the interaction between him and his mother. Instead of him being comforted by his mother, he is supporting his mother who “coughed out angry tearless sighs”; who is utterly broken. Finally, as indicated in the lecture, the repeated stress on the “f”-sound in the last line leads to the feeling that the child is justifiably angry when he finally sees his four-year-old brother’s dead body in coffin, as if he is profaning, “My innocent little brother is gone forever, he can never enjoy the joy and happiness again. What a waste of life”. It is worth noting that it is the only time that he has a private moment, not interrupted by anyone and overwhelmed by anything else, to grieve the death of his brother. In addition, the child plays a rather passive role in the previous stanzas (stanza 1 to 5) where he is observing grief, rather than grieving himself, and is subjected to the events that came up. Therefore, the last line is a powerful revelation of the tragical loss of his four-year-old brother.
Furthermore, it is noted that the mental state of the child corresponds to geographical distance. When he is in college, he seems to have taken his brother’s news passably. In the porch, he begins to realise the seriousness of the event; later when he goes into the house, his frustration developed. Finally, there is a sign of anger in his grief when he finally sees his brother’s coffin. Hence, we can see that the child’s emotion is escalating gradually as he is moving towards the dead body of his brother in response to the event he goes through. It is interesting that when he uses the word “corpse” to describe his brother when the ambulance arrives. To some extent, it shows a level of distance which maybe because he has not seen his brother for six weeks or he is geographically distant to his brother. To conclude, the child’s emotional state changes according to the events in the funeral, as well as geographical distance.
love the you explain the poem
This is so helpful. Thank you!
Wow! It's amazing! Thanks!
If i say that the last line reminded me of profanities will i lose marks on my junior cert? For being inappropriate??
To be honest, my guess would be that for anything up to University level it would be deemed inappropriate. It's a gamble, so why risk it? At University level I would argue strongly for the point made in the lecture, even to the extent of saying "The anger demonstrated at the end of the poem demonstrates an emotional growth in the child who has seemed somewhat shell-shocked up to this point. It is this natural anger that indicates a growth that reveals he will be able to help his mother later." But at junior cert level you run the risk of not fully explaining yourself to a marker who does not agree with the argument anyway. If you feel you can confidently explain the point by all means use it, but there are many other, less contentious points to be made, as as with all exams time is a factor. If you do use the "stress on F sounds" point, phrase it as something like: "It can be coherently argued that the deliberate stress on aggressive, profanity-linked, F sounds Heaney employs in the final lines, indicates a final anger from the child that had not been revealed up to this point. etc etc" That way you do not sound like you're throwing the fucks into the essay just for the sake of it.
@@mycroftlectures thanks for the feedback! Very helpful!! Some markers can be particularly strict. I lost marks for writing 'holy cow' in my french letter for 'inappropriate use of language' in my mock exams. Your advice and tips are very much appreciated and I would love to see more videos like this on other poems
32:50 caught me off guard lol
Thanks for the warning!
wth even why did my school recommend such a video then lmao they dont watch it before suggesting.
@@fammakewo I've watched it, and am now recommending it: English is the study of how things get expressed, so swearing turns out to be fairly significant, once your students are mature enough to deal with it. If they can cope with talking bout sex, or the death of a small child... PS: in this context, read 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'!
@@charleshall6069 i dont know we arent that amusingly openingly talking bout that kinda stuff thou
Excellent
Really useful stuff!
very well explained 👍
Snowdrops imagery purity,innocence, youth.
Thanks that was really great.
Really very helpful. Thanx!
Yo this video was actually helpful my Midterm exam is base off of this poem, so wish me luck. #Mc.B
POETRY 2023. “How does the reaction to the death in the family manifest in different characters in the poem?”
Barron, Ng Sheung Huen
Aside from the narrator who witnessed and described his family's reaction to the death in their family, we first see how his father reacts to this, crying outside the porch, perhaps not trying to weep in front of the family. A man who has not been bothered by funerals before cried signifies how traumatized this incident is to the father, making man cry. This is usually contrary to the usual, or traditional image of men, tending to suppress their emotions especially compared to women. With the mother, we see her "held my hand in hers and coughed out angry tearless sigh." As the mother seemingly tries to comfort the narrator it's obvious that she has cried out tears herself shocked and terrified by this death in their family. These two characters showed a strong robust burst of sorrow upon their reaction. The death is also magnified by how the narrator, as a kid was even greeted by "old men standing up to shake my hand," where usually adult tends to ignore kids in the case of condolences, showing how significantly tragic this incident could be.
Whereas the narrator of this poem captures how others react to the death of his family member. We only see how he was upset by this news in the first stanza sitting at the college sick bay hearing class bells as the knell. The state of his plain reaction follows next however shows how overloaded he was throughout this incident. Death brings nothing but anguish and pain to the family. Only the innocent baby is free from this suffering.
Heru: As a poem about the loss of life, there is no mention of ‘death’ or its like; though extreme grief is to be felt through several readings of the poem, there is a lack of emotional adjectives, with one exception of the mother’s ‘angry’ tearless cough, throughout the lines; three neat lines constitute most of the stanzas to form a sense of regularity in the face of such a traumatizing event… the death in the family, through narrator’s factual lens, seems to be checked and handled with maturity. But he is melancholy as he goes to the deathbed and describes slowly 'snowdrops and candles soothe the bedside', and the ending line, which borders on profanity, reveals he is stifled and under, in fact, so great a mental challenge to digest the sudden loss despite his seeming calmness, that he could only resort to profanity to let out.
One could say that his reaction is of more-matured stoicism and that he has done his best and taken the sudden rite of passage well and humanly enough. I would suggest one of the reasons he tries to remain tough and unrevealing in front of great grief has something to do with others’ reactions to the event: his father, despite his effort to conceal, fails to help his tears; his mother is already tearless, speechless, and overcome with grief to the extent of desperation, falling into a state of significant dependence upon his entry; the elderly in the community remain somberly mournful and all look up to his reaction; even the incorporation of the laughing and rocking baby, contrasting to the serene and grave background, maybe serves as a reminder of a passed and now-uncalled-for boyhood for him. So the narrator, as the eldest son facing the breakdown of his parents, must take up the responsibility to be sombre enough to carry on as expected by all present.
Fred, Chu Tsz Ki
As the poem talks about the loss of life, it uses an imagery of how people reacted to the death of family members. Throughout this poem, Heaney experiences that he is pessimistic as he hears the bells which ring the classes to a close as ‘knelling’ that it seems hard to close with the school bell rings of a funeral bell. He describes them as “knelling”, which often use to describe the funeral bells indicating the death on Heaney’s mind and that he thinks all the bell he hears is like funeral bells to him. On the other hand, Heaney saw his father crying on the porch is making him believe there must be some huge things have happened as this unusual event of his father’s crying happened even in his father has not been bothered by the funeral before. Moreover, when Heaney witnessed the parent's situation of his brother's death, he was stifled about this happened in facing both the physical and mental challenge he has ever had in his life while he goes to the bed to look at the dead body snowdrops and candles separated to his brother bedside. He has to digest the sudden loss of his brother despite his seems calmness, he can only express his anger about his brother's death and is justifiably angry at the waste of life that has occurred.
When we look at Heaney’s father, a man who has “taken funerals in his stride”, cries on the porch after receiving such a tragic message from the family, he chose not to weep in front of his family but fails to help his tears eventually. It creates a difference between the traditional image of men, tending to suppress their emotions compared to women. In addition, we can see Heaney’s mother “held my hand in her coughed out angry tearless sighs” indicating the fact that she was trying to console his son, but she is in such a sense of despair that she was crying out of the death of their family. Two characters showed an outburst of extreme sadness upon this reaction. As Heaney is taken seriously by the adults unusually that the adults don’t ignore him and stand up when he enters the room. The trauma that Seamus experienced makes other people see him as a man, indicated such a tragedy that the Heaney’s family experienced about.
Kam Chak Fai, Jack
Death is a traumatising event, a catalyst, that one could manifest a reaction that’s completely uncharacteristic of them. In Mid-Term Break, when the narrator returns from college, he sees his father weeping in front of the porch, presumably not wishing to show this side of him to whoever is in the house, Heaney recounts that his father often attends funerals with a stoic appearance but this one breaks him down to tears openly, a death in the family has such a traumatising effect on people that it subverts all societal expectation of how a man should never shed tears. Then it cuts to his mother where she holds the narrator’s hands coughing “angry tearless sighs” it could, once again, defy the gender roles in this kind of situation, or that she has cried all she could. Either way, she’s in no shape to offer any kind of comfort for the narrator like a parent would do in this situation, instead, she’s the one who needs help. Their world turned upside down just with one death, and the emotion within is shown to us rather than just being told to us.
The death also forces his relatives or others to see the young narrator (school boy) as a man, taking him much more seriously, standing up and shaking his hands the moment he enters the house, this reaction most likely manifested from pity. Additionally, the narrator never does explicitly describe his reaction to the death of a family up until the final stanza by constantly using the f-sound, where he is filled with rage, claiming that the death of his brother is a damn waste because of how swift and sudden the death is, one reckless hit and that’s enough to completely ruin their daily lives, drowning in grievance and sorrow.
Chick Karen Tsz Yu, Karen
The poem does not put an emphasis on the dead brother or accident; rather, it delineates different characters' state of emotion. Regarding different characters' reaction to the death in a family, the atmosphere is permeated with suspense that the bells remind the speaker of funeral bells. In other words, the child is inflicted, thinking about death and burial. When it comes to his father's reaction, it is bizarre for a man to weep because of the conventional mindset (men tend to weep less) ; nonetheless, his father relieves his emotion through crying, regardless of stereotypical images of men. What's more, death does not adversely affect father but he is heavily traumatized by the death of child, which can be shown from "he had
always taken funerals in his stride". Besides, her mother is seized by feeling of anger and sorrow that results in crying so much that nearly no tears at all. As baby does not understand the circumstance, compared to the other characters in the poem,which indicates the contrast between them.
For the emotional state of the child in the poem changing from the beginning to the end, "Counting bells knelling classes to a close." suggests his melancholic emotion , associating all bells he heard like funeral bells to him. Moreover, people tend to be oblivious of a child, who pay attention to him because of this tragedy. Although he is just a child, all the old men treat him seriously as an adult, making him feel awkward and uncomfortable. Additionally, the irony of this situation is that the mid-term break is the time,which allows students at boarding school to come home and visit the family, but ironically the child attends the funeral of his younger dead brother during the mid-term break. Finally, he sees his dead brother in a tranquil state, which can be revealed from "Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now.", whereas he is solemn about it in the last stanza and feels angry at the waste of life that has occurred.
WB Yeats did a great job on this poem.
+Kim Kong WUT?
Hadn’t Yeats been dead for about 30 years by the time this poem was written?
May you kindly tell me how to know that I have a consistent rhyme scheme? forgive me for this stupid question
thanks! very helpful!
2021 Life-writing. Mid-Term Break.
This is Barron, Ng Sheung Huen (4187856) from class 419.
The night after I stayed awake till dawn, so as the lights from downstairs skimming through my doorway. Winds howling through the tightly shut window, yet scorched tingling heat caused through my veins. No longer would I hear the shivering noise next to my room during this season, not anymore.
We were finishing the supper we left from last night, cube steak, as they called it, just not the regular muffins and waffles that we usually have on a Sunday morning. I couldn't recall what my father and mother said, but I was just sitting there nodding slightly looking down on my plate. The baby was swarming down one mashed potato after another one, it was my father who stood up and went over to wipe his tiny stained face. And my mother was just sitting there, moving not the slightest, for none I could find looking through her hollow empty stare.
By noon our neighbor knocked on our door, which they never once did, not even when we moved in. They brought us a chicken pot pie, my father smiled and welcomed them in, but mother just went upstairs without a sign, maybe to the room. They said to us, once again, “sorry for my trouble.” I felt uncomfortable with them being around, the chicken pot pie was warm but not within them I sense. I had lost count of how many more times they came over to visit us even to the day I went back to college. I heard day after day, "Thank you."
Every now and then I wandered in front of my brother's room, least where he was, in the dead of night I would peek into the door lock, maybe hoping someone or something would show up, but none other than the verdant wall swallowed with an untenanted bed. At times father and mother went into and cleaned up the room, even when there was not a speck of dust.
It was quiet, even for winter. I grabbed my brown leather coat and put on the grey wool hat my father always wears to work. Didn't snow much but the cold penetrated through my heart. The pack of snow nights before on the road had not yet melted, guessed it would only stack up piles after. Street lights on the road shedded upon the dust of snow falling off from hemlocks, making it looked like there was a thin layer of mist. Blurred but vividly, folks walking down the street, to work maybe, they probably recognized me as they moved the sideways the closer they get to me. I felt like Moses crossing the Red Sea like I was some kind of monster. Maybe indeed I am, I never cried after the incident, not even a single teardrop. It was not because I was trying to be a fortified role model as I'm the eldest, I felt not the pain, but lost, and anonymous hatred, for what? I did not know nor understand. I came across my neighbor's house, car parked neatly at their front door, the brightest velvet red I've seen covered by the crystalline snow, how ironic.
The break was soon over, sooner than I expected, or how I experienced it. I doubted whether things would go back to normal, or perhaps that was what I was hoping for, exhausted I was. Ms. Green greeted me the day we returned, she was so nice as she ever was, it was she who informed me regarding the incident on that day and led me to the sick bay. Lessons went by and so did the knelling bells, it was not as loud and shrilling as I remembered, maybe they fixed it. After school, I revisited the college sick bay, it was a lot distinct when the gloaming sunlight pierced through the room, I recalled that morning the room was plain white, and now it looked shimmering. The school nurse was there, asking me if I needed any help. "I was looking for something I left," I replied, quickly glanced over the bed I once sat on and left.
Would the box grow half afoot this year, I wondered. I wished.
It was unbearable to look at him for even one more second, so I went back to my room. The first thing I saw after I opened the door was my beige desk. I rushed forward to it and pushed everything to the floor. The table lamp shattered into pieces, while the papers were dancing in the air and fell onto the floor slowly. I kicked the chair as hard as I could, but I was not satisfied at all. Without hesitation, I used the wall as a punching bag, for God knew how long, until my parents came up, startled to find my knuckles covered with blood and stopped me.
I did not know why I acted like that, I just felt like I had to do something, otherwise my body would burst like a balloon. Not feeling any pain, I bandaged my wound calmly. My parents kept glimpsing at me when we were having lunch. I was such a fool! I did not mean to place any more burden on my parents. Before they uttered anything, I grabbed the chance to assure them, “Don’t worry, I’m fine. Really.” Then no one spoke a single word, even the baby was quiet. I never realized that silence was really loud. I stared at the food on my plate, having no appetite at all. I put down my utensils and told my parents I was going for a walk. I was walking in the howling gale, had no idea where I wanted to go. The only thing I was sure was that I did not want to stay in my house. It was too suffocating.
I stepped on thick layers of snow, whose whiteness forced me to recall all the surreal things that happened not long ago. The walls and bedsheets of the college sick bay, my neighbour’s car, the bandage, the snowdrops, the candles, and the face of my brother, which is the palest of all. At this moment, my numbness was gone. I started to feel pain coming from my knuckles. The pain forced me to accept the fact that this was not a nightmare, and I could never wake up from this. My hands were trembling with the overwhelming pain, but how was it comparable to the agony my brother felt when he got knocked by the car?
The thought made me sick, but I could not stop myself from thinking of it. All kinds of emotions filled up my brain and I knew there was something wrong with me, but I did not know what it was. My heart was racing like a horse, and my breathing got heavier and heavier. My whole body was trembling so bad that I could not help but to kneel down, but I was sweating at the same time. My vision was also slowly constricting to a tunnel, and I felt like falling into an endless blackhole. Was I dying? Was this how dying felt like? I had no idea how long it lasted, but it felt like centuries to me.
I returned to school earlier than usual. At home, I was always feeling out of place. I hated seeing my parents like that and I hated the feeling of emptiness. School was the only place where I could escape from all these dreadful things. I sat by the window of my dorm room, staring out. The snow was melting, and puddles were everywhere. Feeling bored, I picked a book to read, but something fell out when I opened it. I picked it up and my hand could not stop trembling. It was a photo of my brother and me, smiling and cuddling, probably taken a year ago. I still had vivid memories of us together, it was like yesterday, and it was all coming back to me now, but it was impossible to embrace him like that or see him running around ever again. I could not take my eyes off the photo, and my vision got blurry gradually. Tears were streaming down my face and dropped on the photo. For some reason, I felt like I could finally be honest with myself, and it was alright to cry, for as long as I wanted to.
A freezing windstorm arrived the day after the nightmarish funeral. It was quite common for a windstorm to come in the winter in Northern Ireland. However, that time, it was way colder than the previous windstorms that I had ever encountered before, which was nippy and chilly. I laid on my bed, covered myself with the duvet, and hoped for some kind of warmth that could somehow comfort me in deep.
“You are the elder brother in your family, so it is your responsibility to always take care of your siblings and parents.” Similar thoughts had been running through my mind, from that moment when I heard the tragic news in the college. As soon as I graduated from my preschool, people in the village had already reminded me that I should act as a small adult to protect my family. I remembered it, I remembered it, I remembered it! And I knew I failed to do so. There were a lot of social norms in society back then. I was told that as a man, I could not cry in front of others, no matter how upset I was, how angry I was, or how painful I was. Therefore, the way how my parents processed their grief actually surprised me. I wanted to cry like my father, I wanted to be as angry as my mother. Dismally, the crowd just discomforted me and I was really uneasy. They came not because they were as blue as we were, but they felt like they had to.
I had never imagined that the meaning of Mid-Autumn break could be turned upside down for me. Unlike the harmonious and warm-hearted days before, the way I spent the Mid-Autumn break that year was to attend the funeral of my younger brother, Christopher. Wasn't it ironic? I was supposed to come back home and share the happiness with all of my family members. I had already prepared some presents for them, which were unexpectedly useless and meaningless. When I looked at the gift that I originally bought for Christopher in a traditional store near my school as the Mid-Autumn gift since he had never traveled to other places before, I couldn't help but cry my eyes out. I had thought of various reactions that he may make after receiving this special and tailor-made toy. Unfortunately, I could never know how he would respond to my surprise.
"Would God really bring us together some days?" I gazed at the moon, whispered to myself, wondered doubtfully and helplessly, with the blue gift box.
The sunlight woke me up the next day. The moment when I opened my eyes, I saw something that kept lingering outside the window. It was a small butterfly, which was blue in color. It reminded me of Christopher because his favorite color was also blue. The windstorm had just passed and the temperature was still low. Without any more consideration, I opened the window and let it fly in. The butterfly seemed excited, I was surrounded by it for some minutes. Suddenly, it flew around the gift box and the butterfly laid down on it eventually. I was totally surprised. I lost my mind and called my parents. They came and saw what was happening. We broke into tears without saying a single word, hugging together, knowing that we were at least feeling better for some reason. We decided to leave the window open. Before the butterfly left in the evening, it hovered near the window again, looking like saying goodbye to us. We smiled for the very first time during that break and said farewell. Something emerged within my heart, which was hard to express in words, but I knew that it was hopeful.
"Yes, he would." Religion may be the only way that could heal me and help me to cope with the tragedy. Death was closer than I originally thought and I just couldn't think of another measure to step out of the shadow back then.
Before coming back to school, I buried Christopher's ashes with a seed on the grassland of the village, looking forward to the spring to come soon, hoping that I could still always take care of someone close to me, who would always live in my heart until I died.
Hey, this is Jasper, Ng Pui King.
I have lost count of how many times the clock has ticked, how many sheep have crossed the fence, how long I had been tossing and turning tonight. This winter has been particularly unbearable, I had to crawl out of my bed a few times to turn up the heater. Still, I could not feel a touch of warmth in my veins. The wind has been howling for hours. And I have been shivering for hours and nothing could put me to sleep.
My mother said I was the toughest out of us three. The cold never bothered me, I remembered sprinting in the snow last winter mid-term break with just my sweater on. My younger brother said I am bonkers, but my youngest brother had a good laugh about it. He has always been a jolly boy. Though it has only been a few years since his arrival to our family, the time we had was brilliant. Every time I came back from school after a long, dreadful semester, he would welcome me with the warmest hug. As a four-year-old, he never really cheesed me off; Indeed, I am grateful for the winter and summer we had gone through.
As I walked down the memory lane, the sun slowly seamed through the blinds. I crawled out of bed and walked to the windows, welcomed with a yard entirely covered in snow. Everything was smothered in snow, it was almost dreamlike. The bench, the ash tree, and the swing, nothing was spared. The sunlight shining over the blanket of snow made everything seemed extra sparkly - yet almost blinding. Every corner, every inch of the neighborhood was covered in white as if the sky had poured down buckets and buckets of white paint over the night. If it is my usual self, I would have been elated and rushed out for a snowball fight with my brothers.
But this sudden snowstorm, this sheet of white only reminded me of the sick bay I stayed at. The offputting white walls with rays of white lighting shading on the wall. It was hospital-like. I was told to stay and rest at the sick bay until my neighbors arrived. The room was like a white cube. With two beds and white blinds, the only less-offputting thing about the room was the worn wooden floor. I did not know what I was about to go through. No one taught us how to deal with loss in school. No one taught us how to survive a car accident in school. The sorrow and anger I faced, the white prison I rested at, everything was new to me. That morning was long.
I never hated the color of white. It is a color of purity and innocence. The pope wears a white regalia. The brides wear a white dress. But this white, this white seemed stark. Cold and empty. This was the pale white that was on my brother’s face, the white which stood out across the room filled with dark attires of mourners and grief. I tried to shake it off my mind. Yet, it haunted me throughout the night. There was no color in his skin of white. Neither did my family’s faces, we were all smothered under his skin of white. That was a long night.
The clock has ticked numerous times since I stood in front of the blazing white. I went downstairs to my parents’ faces, pale as my brother’s. Their pale seemed out of place in this house of colors, a home that used to showcase delights and chuffed faces of his. Today was a day where plates of Sunday roasts would be on the table. Instead, leftovers from last night were put on the plates. The room was silent like yesterday but with fewer weeps. We chucked the food down our throats, nobody had anything to utter. I then went back to my room and stared at how the world is covered, in this color of white that meant something only to us, something that we knew will linger on our minds.
Those bloody white walls lingered on my mind. That snowstorm that I witnessed lingered on my mind. That pale face of my brother will always linger on my mind.
CHOY HIU YAN, CHLOE (4012594)
The coffin, four feet long, each foot for each year that he has lived. The moment he was lying deadly, without any vitality, it was a scene that I would probably never forget. He was like someone else’s baby sleeping calmly, peacefully, silently, not at all like my little young brother. He used to be energetic, the trouble-maker at home, the annoying monster in our family. But, not now, no more. Perhaps, he would become someone else’s little brother or son in his new living place. And that was the reason why my father burst out tears on the porch and why my mother sighed and coughed angrily but tearless because the incident was like a robber robbed away their kid.
The lid of the coffin started to close, it was supposed to be finished in just one second. However, it was not. For me, it was as long as the four seasons were gone, or even longer, like four years that we have been together.
The lid of the coffin almost closed for one foot of coffin. My mum leaning on my father’s shoulder with nonstop tears. No one could stop her tears. No one could stop the car. No one could stop the click of closing the coffin. I kept staring at him, without any hope this time. It was such sarcasm. I could never forget the first time he came to our family. I was still studying in my boarding school, I could only return home during my mid-term break. My father drove me home from school. I was full of passion and hope to meet this newborn baby. The moment I opened the door and first saw him, he was sleeping peacefully in my mother’s arms. My mother passed him into my arm, in the meanwhile, it awakened him and drove him to sob. ‘Wah- wah- wah-’ I was extremely nervous and helpless, I did not know what should I do to comfort him. The only thing I could do for him is put him into my mother’s hug. Just like now, my mother was weeping but I did not know what could I do unless I could bring my little brother back to her. But I could not, I could not be the one who stop the box closing.
The lid of the coffin almost closed for the second foot of the coffin. I was standing there alone, not as close as my parents hugging themselves. I stared at the coffin numbly without any emotion like the one who I used to be. I was supposed to be emotional right now, but I was not. I could not give any comforts to my parents. I could not give any reaction to the guests who apologized for our loss. Before he came to our family, I was alone. After he left our family, I was alone, again. If they had to apologize, is it supposed to be my big loss? I lost the spirit of my soul. I lost hope of my reality. I lost the only companion that I had in my world. Does it have to be like this? Be that cruel and brutal to me… I knew there was something shattered inside my soul. I was there, standing alone, but I thought you were never alone because when you’re gone. I have gone with you too!
The lid of the coffin almost closed for the third foot of the coffin. We could not even see his half body anymore. My father’s eyes were already filled with tears. I guess this time he was just trying to depress his sadness of losing an important person in his life. He acted like a tough man this time just like who he used to be. He always told us men are supposed to cry less. Once during the mid-term break, my three years old little brother tried to persuade me not to back to the boarding school. He sobbed and asked me to go. The second I opened the door and took my luggage downstairs. He lied down and grabbed my legs and said “please don’t go!”. My father saw he was begging me and he explained to him patiently that his favorite brother has to study hard at school and will be backed in the coming mid-term break. “Men are supposed to cry less,” my father told him. He wiped away his tears and told us he will be a tough man. This is the last time I saw him at home, wiping his tears away but his eyes kept filling with tons of tears. At that time, I have to go. But this time, you have to go.
Upon the click of closing the coffin, with just a clear ‘bang’ sound, it was just like the moment his life had been abrupted by that car. The car banged, took his life away. The lid banged, took him away from us. Will you come to see me when I have to back to school again? I wondered if you could tell with rains.
Lovely
Read so well, so sad
english exam in less than 20 hours haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Ha. This is the day of the year the videos get watched more than any other then.
youre good
We saw this in School
Great. I hope you all found it useful.
hi from American Amy
Great lecture. Old guy in Canada. 69
2019. Childhood's End.
This poem is talking about the poet's end of childhood. Speaker is a young college boy who had been away at school and didn't meet his 4 years old brother for six weeks. One day, he got a message that his younger brother is dead by a car accident and that news made him be in a daze. At first line in a first stanza, the feeling of stunning is well expressed by what he is doing. He does not cry out loudly but spent the whole morning quietly counting bells in the sick bay. Of course, there is a big sorrow in his mind and we can feel it ironically by his quiet tone. But the most important part of this line is that he started to think about death very deeply in his mind. Before this morning, he didn't think of death seriously even though he saw many funerals taken by his father while growing up.
Considering this, the death of his younger brother was a big shock that made him to grow up. It was literally 'Mid-term Break' in his whole life that made him to think again about how he lived and how to 'die', ironically meaning how to live from now on. This complicated situation is reinforced through time flows. The poet is reminding the day by counting times and it looks like presenting his growing process. He's complex feelings with sorrows for brother and thoughts about himself shows up in 'embarrassed'. This is only word that shows his feelings directly in this poem and it is presenting how it feels when you are in the accidental mid-term break. At the end, the speaker is realizing that his own childhood is ended by seeing a young dead brother who lived a short life. In front of a dead young boy, the speaker who lived a longer life and thinking about how to 'live' is not a young college boy anymore.
ENG3379 Kimberly(Heijin Suh)
This poem is about a boy's mid-term break. The writer Heaney was supposed to enjoy his break as a student. However, something awful happened to him. His brother died because of a car crash. He spent his break participating his brother's funeral.
Rite of passage ceremony of growing up means when a boy turns into a man. Heaney was supposed to be a carefree student as he was having his midterm break . In other words, he should be just a regular boy. However, there are clues in the poem showing that he was experiencing the rite of passage ceremony, meaning that he was treated like a man. The first clue us that he saw his father crying. Seeing his own father crying was not usual for Heaney, especially in a young age. Second clue is that old men were giving him handshakes, which made him uncomfortable because normally, the adults would just ignore a young kid. This emphasises on how the adults were seeing him the same level, as a grown-up. The third clue is that his mother was holding his hands, looking for comfort. It is very unusual for adults to seek for comfort from a young child. Therefore, we can tell that everyone treated him like he was a grown-up.
The poem actually says the solemn of rite of passage ceremony of growing up. Being an adult means that things are serious. It indicates that the carefree attitude is unlikely to be shown when you grow up. The poem shows growing up carries more responsibilities such as hiding your emotions and comfort somebody else. Just like Heaney in the poem, he wrote a lot about other people, rather than his own emotion. In the last line, 'A four-foot box, a foot for every year.' shows us that Heaney is actually angry about the car crash. However, he chose to write it implicitly. I think the poem is saying that growing up means that you have to learn to hide your true feelings or emotions as you need to take more responsibilities such as taking care of others first.
Indeed, facing trauma is one of the ‘rite of passage’ of growing up. As seen in this poem, young Heaney was viewed as an adult, even though he was only in school when his brother was killed. Not only did the other relatives treat him with respect, saying things like ‘sorry for my trouble’, but they also said how he was ‘the eldest son’ and was ‘away from school ’, as if he was the second ‘man of the house’. Exactly why they treat young Heaney like this isn’t explicitly mentioned, but I do believe they hope he could cope with his brother’s death like how an adult would. In other words, they probably want to make young Heaney feel like an adult, so he would cope the trauma in a mature manner.
Of course, merely facing traumatic events isn’t enough to complete the so-called ‘rite’ of growing up, as one also has to understand the trauma he/she had just endured, so he/she could learn to cope with it. In stanza 3, the baby (who might as well be Heaney’s other brother, since Heaney had a total of eight siblings) was facing the same traumatic event as young Heaney, but the way he acted (‘...cooed and laughed and rocked the pram…’) reflected his innocence, and that death meant nothing to it. In contrast, the adults, who had a very clear idea that a close one had been killed, were visibly in grief: his father cried on the porch, while his mother held his hand in sorrow, possibly to get comfort from him. Perhaps learning to understand and deal with trauma is the most important part of this sad but inevitable ‘rite of passage’. -Ian
When Heaney is at school, he attends the funeral of his little brother during Midterm break. The funeral is the “turning point”, in which Heaney is transformed to be in the know, a member of grown-ups. We get the idea fairly from the way adults treat him. The treatment he has been given signifies the maturity in his character. He used to be in the intermediate between the innocence of a baby and the experienced state like his father. It is a rough shift. The adults-in-waiting is deemed ready to take on responsibility, for being the oldest kid. Being treated seriously as a man has given an eccentric sense to the young Heaney. More duty is devolved to him. His father feels apologetic to him for the loss while his mother seeks comfort from him.
Grief takes place when Heaney seeing the dead body of his young brother. Heaney seems to be more collected after the funeral day. It makes sense that his composure in apparent displays a sadness that has been buried deep inside. It is unfortunately true that without pain or obstacles, most people don’t change. When things seem too stagnant, Heaney starts to reflect and reaches adulthood. Part (which might be the childish part) of Heney is gone with the dead member of his family. Yet, for the best of growth, it is better to cope with loss and pain properly.
In Mid-term Break, the rite of passage is about taking up roles and responsibilities. Heaney’s role is first as a student and then as a son. With these two roles, he has to study hard and has to participate in family affairs, especially when his family is in trouble. Quickly he is given another role - the eldest son which may come along with the residual firstborn responsibilities. As the house is crammed with sorrow, Heaney may appear as the only consolation for his parents which has become more evident when his mother holds his hand in hers and “coughed out angry tearless sighs”. His crying father may also feel better when he sees Heaney is back. Moreover, at the moment when his parents are in their weaknesses, Heaney seems to be the toughest and he is the pillar of the family who could and has to prevent his family from further breakdowns. As it reaches stanzas 6 and 7, we know Heaney is a brother who misses and mourns his dead little brother. Heaney has been taking up several roles but the tragedy has then added a few more significant roles and responsibilities on his shoulders.
The rite of passage is also unexpected and unprepared. Heaney never knows he needs to encounter all these beforehand. As those things suddenly comes, he must accept and has no way to reject. He must accept the handshakes from the old men as well as his mum’s request to hold his hands. There is little trace of Heaney’s emotions so we don’t know if he wants to grow up and be an adult or not. Probably deep down in his heart he doesn’t want that but in reality he is forced to grow up. The people around him may have already recognized him as adult. In others’ eyes, he is a “qualified” adult because he has gone through the rite of passage. However, we will never know if Heaney also sees himself as an adult after the tragedy. The rite of passage can change one’s identity from child to adult but may not change one’s mind from mature to immature.
Angel
Hon Nga Chi (4077520)
Rite of passage.
ENG3379 tutorial2 Eunice Hon Mid Term Break
The death of the 4 years old brother is a big brow to Seamus Heaney and his family members. It indicates an important stage in his life, which is to become an adult, as the death of his brother forces him to grow up at once. Death is something unbearable for young school boy, but still Seamus Heaney needs to face it, and this makes him a man, instead of a kid anymore. Although he is not an adult physically, the old men and his family members start treating him like an adult. For example, the old men stand up and shake his hand and his mother holds his hand to obtain some comfort from him. It is because what Seamus Heaney has experienced is far more than a normal child, so they expect him to be brave enough to accept it and support his family, just like what a man does, in a young age. However, he feels embarrassed about being treated like a man, since he does not used to it.
The run-on line that he uses in stanza 3 and 4 show that there is an overload of information for a school boy, as he is facing death for the very first time in a young age. It suggests that everything happens in a sudden way, hence he does not have time to digest what have imposed on him and grow up gradually. Therefore, the death of his brother is a turning point for him to change from a child to an adult.
In this poetry analysis by Dr. Andrew Barker, the contrast between the baby who ‘cooed and laughed and rocked the pram’ and all the adults who understand what’s going on leaves a deep impression on me and in my opinion, this contrast between innocence and experience also has a really close and successful connection with the rite of passage, which is actually a symbol of being mature and empathetic.
I think this poem is more like a microfilm to show the process of being mature of every person, as the baby’s mood, the poet’s feeling and all the other adults’ behaviors can be seen as three steps of gradually being independent, responsible and of course, being older. First of all, as mentioned in the video, the baby is the only one that is happy because he doesn’t know what happened and he is too young to learn about the meaning of death. Undoubtedly, he is immature and all of us experienced this time period. After that, when a person becomes a young adult like the narrator in this poem, he may be taken seriously by the other adults. He may feel a little embarrassed initially but it is exactly the time for young adults to think about shoulder some responsibilities for his family and understand some serious issues, such as life and death. In this poem, old men stood up and shook the poet’s hand can be regarded as a rite of passage ceremony, and in our life, maybe this ceremony can be held in an invisible but still powerful way. As time goes by, everybody will grow into his or her middle age just like the narrator’s father and mother in this poem and we will surprisingly find that they become weaker and weaker. When they feel sad and helpless, they will need a shoulder to cry and a person to be by their sides.
In this short poem, we can see that Seamus Heaney actually shows a person’s life and it is very meaningful and profound.
(ENG3379-1 He Han Chun, Lucy 4072336)
Seamus Heaney shows readers that the rite of passage involves a remarkable change in a person’s psychological change. Rather than experiencing an official announcement for the change in ‘identity’, young Heaney undergoes the growth in psychological aspects of life. The first challenge that he has to deal with before entering the adulthood is the separation and death from his family member.
There are several scenes in the poem reveal that young Heaney is no longer the immature schoolboy, instead, he is gradually going through the same incident as adults gone through. As mentioned in the video, we do not normally associate school bells with death while this time was to prove something terrifically different has happened. Therefore, the ‘classes’ may be a metaphor for lessons that life teaches him. The counting bells remind Heaney that his childhood innocence has come to an end and it’s now the time for him to face the crucial world growing up as an adult. Another clue can be found in the third stanza. The action of shaking hands with the old man can be interpreted into a special ritual that Heaney is now initiated into the adult world. Ironically, there is a contrast of the baby’s innocent joy with the sorrowful news of the death of a little boy. Young Heaney starts to understand the obligation that he needs to bear as being ‘the eldest’ son in the family. When his mother held his hand, it seems like the handover of responsibility or simply the sharing of the family burden. This can be overwhelming for a boy to overcome such a heart-breaking event. Apart from that, one impressively painful line can be shown towards the end of the poem. Six weeks passed since the day he left home, he never got the chance to say goodbye to his little brother.
The death of Seamus Heaney’s younger brother marks a significant transition in his life while this is just the first step in his life-long journey.
(ENG3379-1 CHAN Ho Kwan, Coco)
“Mid-term Break” deals with the scenario of a young child’s death and how Seamus Heaney, as a child, reacts to this incident. The emotional power of this poignant poem derives from the fact that Heaney is very much understated regarding his emotional response in this event. Yet, the poem is inevitably making Heaney to go through a rite of passage. His brother’s death marks a crucial occasion in Heaney’s life, forcing him to become an adult. There are a number of elements illustrated his difficulty and necessity in growing up.
As the eldest son in the family, he is treated as an adult by his neighbours and is seen as a comfort to the family. He can no longer be a "child" anymore and should shoulder the responsibility as a man to take care of his family after this trauma. The third and fourth stanzas are linked by the description of Heaney’s feelings on people who had come to pay their respects. He feels embarrassed when the old men shake his hand as he has no idea how to handle this kind of adult means of communication. And indeed, it must have been uncomfortable for a young boy to find his role in this situation and unsure of how to react to such formality. The process of entering adulthood is inescapable, what differentiate is when and what makes you start to aware of the necessity of growing up and understanding the harsh reality around you.
Just like what the title reveals, the "break" is referring to a broken family and family's grief at the young child's death and also indicating the end of Heaney's childhood through this rite of passage.
ENG3379-Section 1 Lam Kun Kam, Tina
In this poem by Seamus Heaney, it is the first-person account of the experience of death for the first time. Normally, poems about death are always associated with lots of emotions. However, Heaney does not try to pour on the emotions. He is very muted, showing his calm mood. He focuses on describing others’ reactions to the shocking impact of the death of his little brother. For the first five stanzas, they are all the first hand observation of the people around in his house. For example, ‘At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived/With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.’ Although the atmosphere and tension are building, Heaney narrates the scene with little presence of his personal emotions.His feeling of embarrassment is only shown after meeting his father crying and getting handshake from old men.
The sad death of his little brother is forcing Heaney to grow up, but the minimal expression of embarrassment suggests that it is the first time he experiences death of his relative, and that is why he does not know how to express his feelings of what feelings he should have. He finds it hard to face death, which is also the process of going through a rite of passage. Not only when his little brother dies marks the rite of passage that the poet has to go through, but also there is one thing that happen to him indicates he needs to grow up as an adult whether he likes it or not. That is how he is treated as an adult by the other adults, the “old men”. Normally when we are growing up, the adults only see us as kids or teens, they do not take us seriously. But in the poem, when old men stand up to shake hands with the poet, this action is kind of accepting him as an adult and it might means that it is the time he should feel some responsibilities. I like how the last few lines build the emotions up, revealing how easy it is to to die, from a single blow of a car bumper, but how hard the following grieving process as well as the rite of passage for Heaney to accept. I appreciate this poem so much as it does not intentionally pour on emotions to describe the tragedy which makes it much more realistic and terrible to the readers.
ENG3379-3 Sze Hoi Lun, Helen
you didn't talk about the commas or ceseuras
Very noice!
favourite :)
Says the only person in history ever to have read this poem and laughed.
lmao why do i have to do this for homework
Seamus Heaney - Digging - Centre Culturel Irlandais June 13 2013 @ th-cam.com/video/wDAChlcYRqg/w-d-xo.html
I just watched that. Thanks. It reminded me that I have always pronounced "levered" in Digging incorrectly.
@@mycroftlectures Glad you liked it. Here's the longer edit of the same event. It may have been (one of) his last. A serendipitous pocket camera opportunity with a well tuned speaker nearby :) th-cam.com/video/3p6d6a-1-wA/w-d-xo.html
and another event inaugurating a commemorative tapestry: th-cam.com/video/3g04EqlH_OA/w-d-xo.html
18:05 sent me omg lmao
oh but thanks for the memes as well lol
キラークインさすがにおかしいて
32:52 haha
good grief. 35 minutes & lecture ignores the absolute most important parts of the poem, because you're presenting the poem as if it's a short story.
I am presenting it as if it's a short story, yes. That much should be obvious. I say that at the start. When you are teaching it's often useful to remember what you didn't know when you read the poem for the first time, as the students will be doing. And this particular poem has the deliberate narrative structure of a short story. It has a pay-off that is not revealed until the end. Hence to reveal the "what happened" or "whodunnit" if you will, is to negate the effect Heaney is going for, and gets, from his first readers, which we, as teachers, tend to forget the thousandth time we read the piece. You don't start the poem by saying, this is about a poet going home to attend the wake of his brother who died in a car crash, unless you want to ruin that discovery for the reader.
Really doesn't sound right in an English accent...sorry