This shows how naïve and young the child is. Also the snowdrops are related to miss Webster who has just lost her boyfriend, and she is strong because she is coping with it and also, she is fragile just like a snowdrop. The ending is quite similar to Seamus Heaney’s poem mid-term break’ by the fact that we find out how the boy reacts, when he actually sees the snowdrops.
The characters play an important role in both poem and story, the main character in ‘snowdrops’ is the small child, we know that he is very inquisitive and quite curious, I know this because it says that “The snowdrops had been asleep under the ground” and the small child took it seriously thinking that the snowdrops were like people sleeping under the ground. This is quite typical of a young child to think this. We also know that the child is innocent and venerable, by the way that he is fascinated by small things for example how much detail the child takes into consideration when “Geraint was eating a bowl of porridge”.
The child is also protected a lot, when the parents are talking about the death of miss Webster’s boyfriend. They try to cover up what they are discussing and protect the child from reality by saying: -
“This one was very friendly with the young teacher up at the school, Webber is it? Something like that. But his mother coughed and looked at the boy”
The young boy looks up to his father and it seems as though he’s in owe of him, the father seems to be referred to as the strongest person that can cope with a lot mentally and physically and is a stereotypical figure.
Miss Webster the boy’s teacher also plays quite a big part in the child’s life, by the way that the boy seems to believe everything she says. Miss Webster has to control her feelings throughout the whole story, because in those days it wasn’t shown in front of children, and children were not told about death usually until of age. But at the end it can be seen how fragile she actually is, when she breaks down. After the boy finally goes to see the snowdrops for the first time, he goes to tell miss Webster about them, but she has broken down and her weaker side is revealed.
“He lifted his face to tell miss Webster, but she was standing right at the gate, holding the iron bars with her hands. He shoulders were shaking”.
Another character in the story ‘snowdrops’ is Edmund, a friend that the boy looks up to quite a lot. Edmund is a mischievous child and much more experienced and wiser than the boy. I think it is due to the fact that he hasn’t been protected as much from the outside world The boy is more curious and less knowledgeable than Edmund, and when the boy is eating bacon sandwiches he says: -
“What’s in it Edmund? What’s in my sandwich” Edmund being much more worldly wise says: “Bacon, its only Bacon” The boy seems to look up to Edmund as he knows a lot and knows about the death of miss Webster’s boyfriend, and he knows about the funeral that is going on Edmund tells the boy:
“It’s a funeral, my fathers there and my uncle Jim. It’s a boy was killed on a motorbike” This way Edmund is portrayed as a ‘know it all’ I think that Edmund knows much more than the other young boy, because he seems to be less protected from the real world, the other young boy’s parents seem to keep him from knowing he reality to life.
There is another character called Gerald who seems to have some kind of problem because he’s quite clumsy I know this because it says: -
“Who seemed to fall-over, whatever he did” Gerald Davies is one of the pupils on the playground in the same school as the boy. Gerald seems to be a bit stupid and not very bright by the way that the boy notices that silly things are happening to him, without Gerald actually knowing for example:
“The boy saw that his laces had been tied together, the left foot to the right boot, and right foot to left boot, so that Gerald was hobbled”.
Compared to the story ‘snowdrops’, the poem ‘mid-term break’ is called mid-term break for the fact that it is a break from college in the middle of the term, an unexpected break. ‘Mid-term break’ has fewer characters and I think that the character talking, is the actually poet. I know this because it says that he was:
“Sat all morning in the college sick bay”.
We know from this stanza that he has people that care for him, “At two o’clock out neighbours drove me home”.
Also we can tell from this that they are living in a close-knit community and they community is full of people who care.
“In the porch I met my father crying”, the portrays the father as being weak and not being able to cope, the poet was also obviously shocked to see his father crying. But then we find out that he is someone that Seamus looked up to, and the father was seen as “the man” of the house. I think this because it says:
“He had always taken funerals in his stride”
There are other characters that Heaney knew well, and it can be seen that it is a close-knit community; by the way he calls one gentleman “Big Jim Evans”.
The mother is also a strong character in this poem, and is comforting, but at the same time she is very angry and upset. “As my mother held my hand in hers and coughed out angry, tearless sighs” This tells us that she was trying to be strong for her son, there is some role reversal during this moment between the mother and father.
Heaney seems to be a very precise person, from the fact he remembers the exact times; I know this by the way it says in stanza five, line two:
“At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived”. I think that Seamus remembers these times because it is like a turning point in his life, every moment would have been very important to him. Heaney makes us feel sympathetic towards the family, because of the death and how much they have to cope with, I feel a great sadness towards the end because of descriptive and vivid sentences about the child being: “Stanched and bandaged by the nurses”. This way I think that it leaves you with a greater impression of the actual story and you know what has happened, when the writing is descriptively vivid. I do not think though that ‘mid-term break’ is, as effective as snowdrops. In my opinion I think that the story ‘snowdrops’ is much more descriptive than the poem-for the simple reason that it is an actual story. I do not feel as sympathetic for the people though for example, miss Webster, or the boy when he gets disappointed when he finally sees the snowdrops. Although the vivid descriptions are much better in the story because it says:
“The snowdrops had been asleep under the ground”, it gives the impression that there are people sleeping under the ground. And when they use descriptive language by saying: “All he could imagine was one flake of the falling snow, bitterly frail and white, and nothing like a flower” The mood in ‘snowdrops’ changes suddenly from when the boy is anxious to see the snowdrops to hearing the news that someone had died, when miss Webster breaks down.
Unlike ‘snowdrops’, ‘mid-term break’ starts off sad at the beginning making you feel sympathetic and it carries on going.
The language in the story ‘snowdrops’ is totally different to the poem ‘mid-term break’ because the language used in ‘snowdrops’ is simple descriptive writing to display the fact that the young boy is experiencing these feelings. Personification is used to display the fact that the snowdrop flowers are like actual people sleeping under the ground, I know this because it says:
“Miss Webster said, the snowdrops had been asleep under the ground”
The child’s vivid imagination is evident from this description.
The language used in the story is very childish to reflect the innocence and youth of the young boy. The two strands of the story come together when the boy goes to see the snowdrops just as the funeral procession passes the school gates, miss Webster breaks down and for the boy there is a sense of anti-climax and disappointment.
The poem ‘mid-term break’ has much more complicated and emotive language, when describing the child: “He lay in the four foot box, as in his cot”. From this line we can tell that Seamus uses blunt and slow descriptions, he doesn’t describe very much, he gets straight to the point, instead of using quite a few adjectives, take this line for example:
“I sat all morning in the college sick bay”
Also: “in the porch I met my father crying”.
Different kinds of language is used to describe certain characters, for instance, when Seamus talks about people he knows very well, he also uses much less descriptive language, for example when he talks about a gentleman named Jim Evans, he says;
“Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow” For those people he has more respect for he seems to describe much more.
The writer changes his language depending on which character he is expressing, for example when the writer is talking about the child, the writer uses simple effective language, but when the writer is writing what the boy’s parents are saying, the writer uses a patronising language, for example: “You’re a big boy for six, and it’s all because you eat your breakfast up”.
Leslie Norris uses quite a bit of emotive language and vocabulary, which helps the readers to imagine, places vividly. There are many symbols within both poem and story, the main symbols in the story ‘snowdrops’ are the actual snowdrops themselves. They are supposed to symbolise the weakness and fragility of miss Webster, but also the strength of miss Webster getting through this hard time just as a snowdrop would at winter.
In the end there is a great contrast between the child’s black glove and the white pure flower, it symbolises the contrast between good and bad, or life and death.
Also in the story the father says: “ It’s a cold wind, I can’t remember a colder march”. The sad mood is reflected in the coldness and the death at that time, coldness is usually related to death and ghosts.
Seamus also describes “Counting bells knelling classes to a close”
Bells seem to suggest a funeral, and changes the school bells to church bells. Another way in which Seamus uses symbolism is in stanza three, line one Seamus describes:
“The baby cooed and laughed, and rocked the pram”
This highlights the baby’s innocence of not knowing what’s going on, the child does not realise that it is at a funeral and so laughs and coos, the baby also reveals that even though someone has died, life is still carrying on with this new child. Seamus Heaney also remembers “old men standing up to [shake his hand]”.
This gives the contrast between old life and new, it suggests that the old en have had their time and now it’s time to hand life over to the youngsters. But there is still a contrast between the boy who is naïve and inexperienced in life and death-whereas the old men have had a lot of experience in this.
There is a similarity between the poem and the story because; the poem also features snowdrops in the poem. They are placed in the bedroom where the young child is laying:
“Next morning I went to the room, snowdrops and candles soothed the bedside, I saw him”. This gives you a slight image of a lifeless child surrounded by hope and love. The light from the candles symbolises hope for the future and is to brighten up the dark room. Also this shows that candles light up dark places, the dark place being the home where the child is.
The next symbolism is when Seamus Heaney describes the child, after seeing him for the “first time in six weeks” he states:
“Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple, he lay in the four foot box as a cot”.
The poppy bruise is there to show that Seamus Heaney will never forget the child, as we always connect poppies with Remembrance Day.
The setting for the story ‘snowdrops’ by Leslie Norris, is set in a close-knit community, this is evident because firstly the weather is typically welsh, also because of the certain traditions like women do not attend funerals.
The men also sang a welsh song, while at the funeral saying:
“Mor ddedwydd yw y rhai trwy ffydd” and also by the fact that it says:
“The boy knew that it was welsh because of grandmother, and it was sad and beautiful”
‘mid-term break’ written by Heaney was written by Heaney was set in a small place in Ireland, the setting is similar to ‘snowdrops’ because they both have very close-knit community’s where everyone is supportive, and sympathetic and the funeral wake was held at home where they placed candles it may have been placed there to signify the strength of their religion. Also children do not expect death and have little experience of it, but Heaney was actually deeply affected by the death of his young brother.
I think that the story ‘snowdrops’ and the poem, suggest that even though there is a death these people still carry on going on, with the help and hope of others. And it means that whatever happens, still carry on and try not to break-down, because there is always hope