“ In the porch I met my father crying-”
This must have been a shock because fathers are often there as a figure to look up to. Seeing a father cry is rare and it confirms that something dreadful has happened.
“He had always taken funerals in his stride”
This referring to the previous quote about his father shows that he is strong and doesn’t easily get upset. It also answers our question about what has happened- someone has died. It also implies that the father ahs lost people in the past as it says that he was fine at past funerals. This line creates more questions. Who has died? How have they died?
“The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram”
This is so effective because it gives a contrast between the father, who is obviously devastated, and the baby, who is too young and naive to know that anything is wrong.
“…my mother held my hand
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.”
This is almost as shocking as the father crying. I would’ve thought the mother would’ve been the crying parent and the father would’ve been the one trying to be strong. It also informs us that she’s angry about how this person has died and that she might even feel angry towards someone who contributed to his or her death.
“At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.”
This is an awful picture. The corpse has been stanched to prevent it from bleeding, this tells us that the death must’ve been an accident and it was not from natural causes.
“Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks.”
We collect a lot of information about the family from this. We know that they are Christians as they have candles making the bedside holy. Snowdrops grow in the spring and usually come out in February, which is usually the middle of the Easter term. We also know that Seamus last saw the deceased six weeks ago, which was probably before the start of the Easter term.
“…Paler now,
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.”
We finally are told more about the accident and the deceased. A poppy is used to describe the bruise on his left temple because it traditionally symbolises death. The deceased is a young boy as it says he lies in a four-foot box as though it was his cot. And we are finally told that he has been hit by a car and has died instantly from being hit on the temple.
The last paragraph is the simplest but the strongest of the whole poem. It tells us that the boy was just four years old and he is now dead, lying in his box.
“A four foot box, a foot for every year.”
