Heaney uses words that we would not expect to see in poetry, and he presents nature as the very opposite of beautiful. He has the ability to provide us with his feelings and emotions very effectively. In ‘Mid-Term Break’ he is able to give the feelings of others and not just himself. The title itself “Mid-Term Break” suggests a holiday. However, this “break” as Heaney puts it, is shattered from the death of his little infant brother.
He had to wait in boredom and listen to the sound of a bell tolling solemnly. The “knelling,” suggests that a funeral has taken place. He has been there a long time because he sat all morning and the neighbours took him home at 2 o’clock.
His father, who is apparently strong at funerals, is distraught by the death of his child. It says; “He had always taken funerals in his stride”. His mother was too angry at fate and how young her child was. She tries to hold back the tears by constant coughs and sighs. This shows how emotional the scenario was. Big Jim Evans had made a “step out of the line” when he says it was a hard blow. The phase could be related as being physical or mental. Obviously he meant it to be mental (metaphorical) blow to the child’s parents.
He is uneasy and apprehensive when the “baby cooed and laughed” because the baby didn’t know what was going on. People talk about him in front of him as if he wasn’t around. Old men giving respect by shaking his hand made him feel uncomfortable and the constant euphemisms did not help him feel better. The euphemisms are said because it implies that the relatives feel they must say something. It is a standard statement, which is said in order to show concern for the people with their loss. Near to the end of the poem the dead body is finally mentioned. Heaney does not see him as a person but cruelly calls it a “corpse” instead. I think he does this because of all the stress built up from his uneasiness. I’m sure he didn’t mean to call him a corpse but he is too angry by what has happened and takes it out on his brother instead.
It is not until the last two poems before he is honest with himself and becomes emotionally affected. He is eventually alone with his brother when he behaves as usual instead of being nervous and anxious. The quote; “Snowdrops and candles soothed the bedside” – this literally did sooth Heaney’s feelings. The flowers are a symbol for the family showing them a symbol of new life after death. The poet sees the bruise on his brother as something little. He is “wearing it” which is a metaphor. The poppy is likened to the bruise (Soothes the pain which the flower is linked with death). The “corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses” is now a sleeping child with “no gaudy scars”. He does not use the word “coffin” to describe it but says “box”. It is a less powerful word, which helps the poet come to the fact that his brother is no longer existent. The box being 4ft hides the fact that the child was too young to die and the poet feels distressed by this.
Generally, it is obvious there is a contrast between his embarrassing situation in the beginning and his natural self in the end. Death is the hidden topic in a few of his written poems mentioned. Limbo is another. However, the mother committed murder on her own new, born baby. Her beliefs led her to do such a horrifying procedure. We do not know for sure why the mother did such a dreadful act. We are not sure which religion would be severe enough to teach that illegitimacy is not acceptable. It was frowned upon to have an illegitimate birth but she has to put up with the religion she believes in.
The title itself means nothing between heaven and hell. It implies that there was an illegitimate birth where the baby will not go to either heaven or hell. In medieval times the person who dies without being baptized would remain in limbo.
The baby is described to be like the fish because it is pulled out “along with the salmon”. The baby has the same size, colour, spawning and is pulled out from the same environment. “He was a minnow with hooks”, still describing the baby as being a fish.
However, we are reassured to know that the mother did not kill the baby brutally. I quote; “Ducking him tenderly”, showing that she did care for the newborn but couldn’t keep it because of what her religion would do to her. She tries to make the death of the baby as painless as possible. Nevertheless, Heaney paints the picture that the mother was grieving and emotionally heart-broken during the process. The sentence; “Tearing her open” can be related metaphorically (emotionally) and physically (the birth). It was emotionally painful of having to kill her baby, to give birth in agony and at the same time realising that death will follow soon after.
Heaney brings about so much tension and horror in his poem. It is delivered by striking the reader with constant awful details to the death of the child. The mother murders the baby just after birth. Because it is an illegitimate birth the baby is not baptized and therefore is condemned to limbo. He brings more detail by suggesting that limbo like the sea. E.g. “A cold glitter of souls”. The sea is cold, dark and the souls are like fish. Even Christ Himself feels his wounds and cannot draw near the drowning sight as though he never intended such an act to be performed under the sign of His cross. It reminds us of the sacrifice Christ had to endure. Its delivers such an impact on the reader to give a glimpse of what people would be forced to do in the poet’s time. By killing the baby may have been the morally right method to choose rather than keep a helpless child in a henhouse. This left him to be illiterate, unable to speak and grow up to behave to his dark surroundings.
Bye-Child gives an impression of what it would have been liked if the mother kept her baby. It makes the reader ask himself/herself if the mother was morally right in doing what she did.
It tells a story of a feral child deprived to the outside world. It is an ultimate symbol of ignorance, isolation and alienation. The poet expresses the squalor conditions in many sentences: “…the dust”, “the cobwebs, old droppings”, “Under the roosts” and “dry smells…”
He has grown to look sharp-faced just like the animals around him. The image he creates is dramatization of Irish poverty and deprivation. The child only lives for the deliverance of scraps thrown through a trapdoor. He has a lack of knowledge but still knows there must be something out beyond the walls of the henhouse.
Heaney remembers the photo placed in the paper and describes him as being a “rodent” possibly because of his pointy features. He continually refers to his scrawny body by saying words like; “Sharp-faced as new moons” or “moon man”. He says the child was “on the floor of my mind”. This suggests that metaphorically he couldn’t stop thinking of this deprived child.
The only link of the boy to the so-called “she”(his mother?) is by receiving scraps from her, which is inexplicably excluded. His only comfort and companionship he receives is the lamplight from a window; “When the lamp glowed, A yolk of light”
The quote; “Of beyond patience” shows he is compared to that of a dog. He is “kennelled and faithful”. Thus in spite of all the misery and neglect of his parents, there is no resentment of his situation. This is because he is not human and does not think like one so there is no possible bitterness from the child. The question Heaney creates is can the boy sense love even though he does not have the capabilities of a human? “A puzzled love of the light”. How can this possibly be? Is it known straight from birth or is it developed from life?
The poem delivers an ultimate message effectively to the reader. It gives an account of what can happen to mothers who are estranged and put under so much pressure from their beliefs. Modern day life is just as comparable to the life that Heaney had to survive in.
Digging is like follower, as it shows how Heaney as a child looked up to his elders. In this case it is his father and grandfather. Seeing his father (now old) “straining” to dig “flowerbeds”, the poet recalls him in his prime, digging “potato drills”. And even earlier, he remembers his grandfather, digging peat. He cannot compete with his father and grandfather because they are too skilled and talented at their tradition. He cannot contend with “men like them” with a spade but he realises that with just a pen he can achieve much more. I quote; “But I’ve no spade to follow men like them”. He sees the pen as being greater and with this he will dig into the past and rejoice them. E.g. “I’ll dig with it”.
Irishmen are understandably well known for digging, but Heaney shows the skill and dignity in their labour; “He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep/To scatter new potatoes that we picked.” The tradition is imperative because Heaney describes how his father would still work in his old age and his grandfather would barely stop to drink; “by God, the old man could handle a spade/Just like his old man” and “To drink it, then fell to right away”
He describes his pen as being “a gun”. This is quite similar because it fits nicely into his hand and is very powerful. It has so much potential to be powerful (metaphorically) in written work.
Each man has dug up what has “real value”. The poet celebrates not so much strength as their expertise. The poem is looked at two memories - the father digging the potato drills and his grandfather is famous for being the best digger in the entire peat bog.
The onomatopoeia is very obvious in many cases. It is used where needed like; “rasping”, “gravelly”, “sloppily”, “squelch” and “slap”. This helps bring the poem to life, shows expression and thought in his work.
The poet is getting back to his own roots. He is describing his identity and where his family comes from. The poem really begins as it ends but only at the end is Heaney’s pen seen as a weapon for “digging”. He gets his point across that he is breaking his tradition of literally digging. However, he is doing this for the better and in a way he feels ashamed of himself for not being able to follow his father and grandfather.
Heaney’s poetry is descriptive and well presented. They are all meaningful and delivers a powerful message to the reader. Punishment must be the shocking and well written of them all. I found this poem very emotional and had so much impact on me. This poem effectively puts us into the imaginative position of watching someone being executed for having committed adultery. We must realise this is a sin any of us might be tempted into committing. The poet is able to make us ask what kind of people could strip a beautiful flaxen-haired girl, shave her head, blindfold her, put a noose around her neck and drown her by tying rocks to her and throwing her into a bog for committing adultery? And what is this all about? Religion must have been very solemn at that time in order for people to look on and believe this was right.
She is naked, cold and exposed. The sentence: “ The wind on he naked front” and “it shakes the frail rigging of her ribs” implies how vulnerable and helpless she is. The word “rigging” helps show that she is weak because the word is used to describe a thin body of a ship. The words “I can” is repeated in the 3rd verse to the 1st verse to signify that he can see everything but is too coward to do something about the situation. He says how awful things like this are still happening just like the Iron Age and it’s due to human error that this problem is not resolved.
There is not a capitol letter in the 5th verse because it is talking about her. This is possibly to imply that she is not the one in power and must therefore be the victim. “her blindfold a soiled bandage” shows how this is related to the conflict in Northern Ireland. The bandage is associated with conflict and he secretly hides that nothing has changed with all the conflict that has happened in modern day life and previous times.
This poem is related to the Tollund Man. It is well built and descriptively written letting the reader know that violence is still going on yet no one stands up for it.
The horror of this incident is shown by constant repetition of all the bad that’s done to the poor girl. Heaney cannot see the beauty of this young woman because black, sticky tar has covered her face. She is a victim of this incident and he refers to her as being “My poor scapegoat”. He is taking possession of this woman for he felt for her deeply which is noticed from the sentence; “I almost love you”. Even though he loves her he had to stone her because adultery is a sin. Even though he is fascinated by her he knows he shouldn’t be because she has done wrong. Even though he feels so deeply of this girl he realises how foolish he was by letting them carry on with the punishment; “I who stood dumb”.
In some cases Heaney is able to use oxymoron in order to describe how society can be a catastrophe at times. He uses the descriptive words “civilized outrage” to show this. He puts two opposite words together to form a different meaning. Hence the word “civilize” and “outrage”.
Heaney has experienced many tragedies in his life from “Mid Term Break” to “Punishment”. He clarifies this using his own expertise of writing to create descriptive poems like these. What must be said about him is how he is talented enough to deliver what is suppose to be delivered, very effectively in order for a reader like me to have such an impact on what is said.