Discussion Topic
Unusual and ironic elements of the poem "Mid-Term Break"
Summary:
“Mid-Term Break” features several unusual and ironic elements. The title suggests a typical school holiday, but the poem recounts the speaker's brother's death, creating a stark contrast. Additionally, the detached tone juxtaposes the emotional gravity of the situation, and the final line, revealing the brother’s age, delivers a poignant impact, highlighting the tragedy's innocence and brevity.
What is ironic about the title of the poem "Mid-Term Break"?
In "Mid-Term Break," an eldest brother comes home from college to attend the funeral of his younger brother. Normally, the phrase midterm break refers to a holiday or vacation that gives students a pause or well-needed breather from their studies in the middle of a semester. In this case, the break is the result of a tragic occurrence. The title is ironic because "mid-term break" means the opposite of what the words usually mean.
The break is far more serious than a short period of rest mid semester. The family is broken by the death of the innocent child. The older brother comes home to see his father "crying," even though normally his father takes "funerals in his stride." His mother, too, is very much broken up by this death. Her pain is beyond tears and demonstrated through "tearless sighs."
This is a family that may have endured...
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a break with their past lives that will scar them forever. It is the break between life and death. This is the kind of break that a student never wants to be called away from school to participate in.
We feel for the senselessness of this death. We learn that the boy was killed by being run over by a car, as the "bumper knocked him clear." It is only at the very end of the poem that we find out the little boy was only four years old.
What is unusual about the poem "Mid-Term Break"?
In the poem "Mid-Term Break" by Seamus Heaney, a neighbor picks up the narrator, a college student, from school and takes him home to a grieving household. His father, mother, relatives, and friends are all in mourning because the narrator's four-year-old brother has been hit by a car and killed. Everyone is grieving in their own way. At night an ambulance arrives with his brother's corpse, and in the morning the narrator goes to view the body within the small four-foot coffin.
One unusual thing about this poem is its title. A midterm break from college signifies party time for many students. They look forward to time off from their rigorous regimen of studying and go somewhere where they can cut loose and enjoy themselves. In this case, however, the title is ironic. Instead of a partying atmosphere, the student comes home to a place of mourning and grief.
Another unusual device in this poem is the air of mystery concerning who it is that the characters have lost. Although it is evident from the narrator's arrival at home that someone has died, with the mention of his father crying and his father's usual reaction to funerals, Heaney refrains from revealing the identity of the dead person until the very last line. After the father, various friends, and the baby are mentioned, readers may tend to think that the narrator's mother has died, but then the mother holds his hand. His dead brother is first mentioned only as "the corpse," and we discover only at the end that the pale figure in the tiny coffin is his four-year-old brother.