Mid-Term Break is a lyric poem written by an outstanding Irish poet and playwright Samuel Heaney. The poem is autobiographical as it is written in the first person, so the narrator coincides with the author and is a participant of the described events. In his real life Samuel Heaney got over a death of his little brother that formed the basis of Mid-Term Break. The author seems to be reserved about his own feelings, that is why the poem is full of polysemantic words (with several meanings), symbols and contrasting situations that are aimed to to convey the feelings and render the mood of the poem.
The first contradiction is present in the name of the poem – ‘mid-term break’. Immediately it associates with something pleasant – the end of semester, no school or college and lessons or lectures for a certain period of time – only good hopes and dreams. But, unfortunately, Heaney meant a very different thing. In this case mid-term break has a negative connotation. The noun ‘break’ has a meaning of ‘death’, ‘end of life’, ‘discontinuation’ and the adjective ‘mid-term’ suggests the age of a boy that did not survive the accident. The title of the poem is designed in such a way that can bewilder the reader at the beginning and make it difficult to get the initial idea of the poem.
Another example can be found in the first stanza. The poem opens with the lines that immediately prepare the mood of the reader for the upcoming events: “I sat all morning in the college sick bay/ Counting bells knelling classes to a close.” (Heaney) The fact that the narrator is not in a classroom, but in a sick bay suggests that something unpleasant happened and all his worries can be transmitted through the atmosphere around him. He counts bells and waits for the end of the classes. The bell is a symbol of message, certain signal that can be either good or bad. In the poem the bell does not ring, it knells for a death or funeral. Heaney uses auditory imagery to appeal to the sense of hearing and render the mood. The repetition of the sounds [k] and [l] in these two lines is alliteration and also remind a knolling bell. The narrator is taken home by the neighbors, not his parents and this also make the reader wonder what is going on.
A contradicting situation also occurs in the second stanza. The narrator arrives home and introduces the other members of his family and their emotional state. Immediately on the porch he meets his crying father, who “had always taken funerals in his stride”, but this very one he cannot accept this “hard blow”. (Heaney) It helps to create a contrast and highlight the importance of this funeral comparing to every other.
The line 7 is also aimed to evoke the reader’s feelings and let him really hear what is going on: “The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram.” (Heaney) The auditory imagery here is not full of mourning and grief – it creates contrast to the whole funeral scene. The babies laugh is joyful and happy. A newborn is a symbol of life and his presence on this celebration of death reminds of that the life is still going on, no matter what happened.
Works Cited
Heaney, Samuel. "Mid-Term Break". Poetryfoundation.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 7 June 2016.
