Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney

Mid-Term Break

Thesis: The death of a young, four-year-old child in this poem by Seamus Heaney is meant to explain the hardships the family endures through the use of verbal irony and specific subjective diction.

-          Verbal Irony

·         “In the porch I met my father crying… / as my mother held my hand / in hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs” (4 and 12-13). The title of the poem uses the word “break”, carrying a positive connotation for relaxing and enjoying oneself. The irony can be inferred from the use of the word “break” from college and the death of a younger brother. For a family death to occur over a holiday or break from school does not constitute positive emotions.

-          Subjective Diction

·         “The baby cooed and laughed and rocked in the pram” (7)

·         “With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses” (12).

Seamus Heaney uses interesting diction in these two cases, first describing the “cooing” and “laughter” of a baby even in a time of death. It can be inferred that Heaney decided to incorporate this because it adds to the tragedy, although the child does not know the gravity of the situation, it will all be made clear eventually. Why Heaney refers to the younger child as a “corpse” over all else tells us a lot about the setting and the mood. The corpse is stanched and bandaged, almost irreparably mangled by the nurses and his clothes. Although it was only a car that did the damage, this description also adds to the effect of tragedy and the overall glum feelings that come from the ending of this poem.