Transcript Mid-term Break - Kinross High School

Mid-Term Break
Mid-Term Break
I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At ten o'clock our neighbours drove me
home.
In the porch I met my father crying –
He had always taken funerals in his stride –
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard
blow.
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked
the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand
And tell me they were 'sorry for my
trouble'
Whispers informed strangers that I was the
eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my
hand
In hers and coughed out angry tearless
sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged
by the nurses.
Next morning I went up into the room.
Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside I saw
him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple.
He lay in a four foot box, as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him
clear.
A four foot box, a foot for every year.
Seamus Heaney
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Born 13 April 1939
County Londonderry, N. Ireland
Eldest of 9 children
St. Columb’s College, Belfast
Noble Prize in Literature in 1995
‘Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry’ in
Queen’s University, Belfast
Poems deal with:
• Local surroundings
• Issues in N. Ireland
• His own family history
• Focus on characters in his own family
Style / Themes
Context
• Elegy – a sad/thoughtful
poem lamenting the death
of a person
• Personal look back at the
death of the poet’s younger
brother
• 7 stanzas of 3 lines each,
final line on its own.
• At 12, Heaney was a
boarding pupil at St.
Columb’s College, Derry
• Whilst Heaney was at
college, his younger brother
Christopher was killed in a
car accident.
• Poem is recalls the events
from Heaney’s perspective
• Themes : Childhood,
Death/Loss, Memory
• 2006
• Int 2 Past Paper
Poetry Questions
1. Birth, death, love, hate, jealousy
2. Positive experience
3. Arouses strong emotion
• 2007
1. Ordinary experience – deeper
meaning
2. Pity or sympathy
3. Describes a scene/incident vividly
• Questions in bold are
all occasions when
the poem ‘Mid-term
Break’ could be used
• 2008
1. Sadness, pity or loss
2. Strong relationship
3. Human behaviour
• 2010
1. Message
2. Atmosphere
3. Character
1.
2.
Where is Heaney in the first stanza? (Check lines 11-12 for clues)
By the end of stanza 2, what can we begin to guess has
happened? What clue points to this conclusion?
3. In what way is the father’s reaction unexpected?
4. Why does the baby react like this? Why does this reaction stand
out?
5. Strangers are told Heaney is “the eldest” (line 11) Why might this
be significant?
6. Why do you suppose Heaney is “embarrassed” about the way the
old men treat him?
7. In stanza 5 Heaney mentions “the corpse”. Who has died? Why do
you think Heaney has chosen to use the word “corpse” rather
than “body”.
8. How can we tell what has happened to him? Quote from the
poem to support your answer.
9. Heaney describes the “poppy bruise” on his head. What do we
normally associate poppies with?
10. How old was he? Quote from the poem to help explain your
answer. How does the reader react to finding out the boy’s age?
Revealing hidden feelings
• How do you think Heaney might have felt about:
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His father crying
Big Jim Evans
The baby in the pram
The strangers
His mother’s sighs
The difference between his father and mother
• Why do you think these feelings have not been
described?
Symbols
– Snowdrops and candles soothed the bedside
– Wearing a poppy bruise
– No gaudy scars
• Think about each of these images.
• What is unusual about each?
• Are there any techniques used?
• Add this info to your copy of the poem
The final line
• “A four foot box, a foot for every year”
• How effective is this final line?
– What is the purpose of it?
– What do you learn from it?
– Language used?