"Mid-Term Break" by Seamus Heaney

"Mid-Term Break" by Seamus Heaney

By: Sujin 

A theme for the poem"Mis-Term Break" by Seamus Heaney is that grief from death impacts people in different ways. This poem expresses various emotions in different perspectives. Narrator's family members reacted differently to death and it was shown through their behaviors and manners. Lines 4 and 5; "In the porch, I met my father crying/He had always taken funerals in his stride-" presents the idea that the narrator's father is not his practical self because he was already used to death. He is a matured and grown-up man, but he couldn't hide his grief.  Another example "The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram" in line 7 changes the mood of the poem. The baby is innocent and is unaware of the event that is taking place.  Line 13 which is "In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs" suggests the mother of the narrator has been crying for a while and her grief is shown through anger. Unlike other family members, the narrator has various emotions reflected in the poem. "I sat all morning in the college sick bay" in line one and "I saw him/For the first time in six weeks. Paler now" in line 17 and 18 shows that he feels isolated in the beginning of the poem and guilty. These lines suggest that he goes to a boarding school and is away from his family. However the narrator is also seen to be embarrassed in lines 8 and 9, "When I came in, and I was embarrassed/ By old men standing up to shake my hand". He probably feels he is still young to be considered an adult and is not used to old men standing up to shake his hand. What he feels is different to his father, mother and the baby.  This poem suggests that experience and age difference causes people to be affected differently when they lose someone special in their lives.