‘Wet gloves’, ‘bobbed’ and ‘shone’ are all peculiarly pleasant ways to describe dead animals and evoke a feeling of the innocence of Heany’s childish perspective. The simplicity of the image has familiar childhood connotations of games like ‘bobbing apples’. This may suggest that, as a child, Heany has not grasped the seriousness of death. The dead kittens are ‘sluiced’, unsentimentally out and described as being ‘glossy and dead’. This is an unusual description because the two words are not usually associated. The third stanza finally introduces the emotion which most people expect; ‘suddenly frightened’ - Heany uses the emotion of a child to present him as vulnerable and innocent. At the end of this line he writes ‘sadly hung’ and uses the enjambment of cutting the line off to create a ‘hanging’ feeling. He uses contrasting words like ‘sogged’ then ‘mealy and crisp’ to describe what are now dehumanised ‘remains’. These produce unpleasant senses of smell and texture, an image of decay. There is an abrupt end to what is becoming slightly sentimental when Heany says ‘until I forgot them’, this emphasises how difficult it is to tell how much something has affected a child because they tend to forget so quickly and appear completely unscathed. But Heany then returns to the presentation of the helplessness of children with ‘the fear came back’ and the trio of shocking ‘trapped’, ‘snared’ and ‘shot’. He trivialises Dan’s actions by detaching himself from them but then seems to empathise with the animals
when he says ‘sickening tug’ and ‘pulled’. As a child, Heany now appears more sensitive to the plight of animals.
He moves on to change his perspective from a child’s to an adult’s. At the beginning of the sixth stanza he writes ‘still’, this makes it seem as if Heany has never really accepted that killing ‘pests’ is right, but also indicates a turning point in his opinion. ‘Living displaces false sentiments’ shows that this way of life is most convenient though, and that he has come to understand that. The words ‘sentiments’ and ‘sense’ contrast with each other, this shows the difference between a child’s view and an adult’s. The poem looks back at him when he was a child. It seems as if he is laughing at himself because of his naivety. ‘And now’ he describes the animals as ‘shrill’ creating an irritating image. He is completely unsentimental about prodding the animals with a mere ‘shrug’, showing how trivial it has become for him. He quotes his own unemotive words now; ‘bloody pups’ and dismisses the sentimentality of when he was a child. In the last stanza Heany makes a point of how natural death is and how the importance of a ‘well-run’ farm combats the overly sentimental view people have of animals. The way he writes ‘cuts ice in town’ shows his criticism and distaste for people and their lack of understanding for a different way of life. He ends a poem with the blunt but adult view that on a well-run farm pests have to be kept down. This unequivocal statement makes complete sense.
Throughout the poem Heany uses the constant mixture and contrast of the casual to the disturbing. He presents children as innocent and sensitive. The effective use of contrasting vocabulary and steady rhythm give the poem a balanced feeling which results in a clear understanding of how, as perspectives change so do attitudes.
Heany explores many different childhood experiences within his poetry. When he was 14, his younger brother was killed in an accident. ‘Mid-Term Break’ is a poem he wrote as an adult looking back on his brother’s funeral. He looks at his reaction to the death and how he feels about the people around him at the time.
The first stanza of the poem creates a sense of expectation as it includes lots of detail. We can tell immediately, again, from ‘mid-term’ and ‘college’ that it is about Heany’s childhood. The detail of how he ‘sat’ and the exactness of the time; ‘two o’clock’ are all very descriptive but tell us nothing about how he feels. This indicates that, as a child, he feels confused and lonely about such a tragedy. He describes the school bell as ‘knelling’, this has connotations with the death knell of church bells at a funeral, but so far this is the only signal of the theme of death. The repeated ‘c’ alliteration on the second line feels a bit like the monotony of counting. We immediately get the impression that there is a sense of community among Heany’s family, friends and neighbours by the way he says ‘our neighbours drove me home’, but Heany appears detached from this community by the lack of feelings in his description.
The poem then places emphasis on Heany’s father. He writes how he ‘met’ his father which is a strange way to describe approaching a member of your close family, this continues the feeling of detachment and that Heany is attempting to distance himself. The abrupt ‘my father crying -’ is a shock for both Heany and the reader because we know from poems like ‘Digging’ and ‘Follower’ that Heany has great respect for his father and looks upon him as strong and unbreakable. The punctuation here shows the confusion and jolting realisation that Heany has to accept that he will have to rely on his own strength, not that of his parents. For a child this is a difficult thing to accept and at fourteen, Heany was obviously expected to cope with his grief partially on his own.
Heany moves on to describe the people around him. ‘A hard blow’ seems to trivialise the situation. Although the words are meant in a kind way, they alienate him even more. He describes how the baby ‘cooed and laughed’ which seems inappropriate and strange when looking at people’s reactions to death, but of course, being a baby it is completely unaware. Heany describes being ‘embarrassed’, which is still a very removed emotion and tells us nothing about how he is really feeling. He is embarrassed because suddenly people are treating him like a man and ‘standing up to shake his hand’, this respect and acknowledgement for him is new and strange.
Heany presents children as adults here, focusing on the difficulty of the transition of taking responsibility and not relying completely on the strength of his parents. He uses a flow of consciousness technique to move straight into the next stanza and continues in a conversational tone but still refusing to display any personal emotions about the death. ‘Whispers informed strangers’ detaches Heany further and isolates him as if he is being gossiped about like he isn’t there. At the end of this stanza Heany uses deliberate enjambment with ‘my mother held my hand...in hers’. This produces an image of warmth and security, which is lacking in a room full of strangers. Holding hands is a nurturing gesture, as if there is a bond between Heany and his mother because they are both going through the same thing. This focuses back on how Heany is expected to be mature and it is like he is supporting his mother as well as her supporting him.
He describes other people’s actions, ‘coughed out angry tearless sighs’. An involuntary reaction filled with resentment. Most people can probably sense the overwhelming grief in actions like this. Heany continues to distance himself well into the poem, not revealing any emotion. The precision of detail, ‘at 10 o’clock’ is a way of distancing him and us from what is really happening. When his brother is brought to the house he uses medical terms like ‘corpse’, ‘stanched’ and ‘bandaged’ to describe what he sees - this gives us absolutely no idea of how he is feeling. Often children react in strange ways to death; Heany clearly dealt with it by isolating himself. The exactness of times and how he starts the sixth stanza with ‘next morning’ give to impression of a news report.
‘Snowdrops’ and ‘candles’ are both symbols of new life, a contrast to the theme of death. The image of peace and white also contrasts with the images of a corpse and its connotations with blood and violence. ‘I saw him’ tells us that Heany is ready to share his memory with us now and open up a little. The detail of ‘a poppy bruise’ is a lasting image and is focused on because it obviously remained in Heany’s thoughts. A poppy has connotations with Remembrance Day and it reminds us of the suffering that his brother must have endured. The shocking comparison of the ‘four foot box’ and his ‘cot’ is quite disturbing even though it seems to be written so casually. The detail of the size makes people realise quite how small the brother was and the safe image of a peaceful, cosy cot with a coffin is a huge contrast. ‘Gaudy’ is a word implying tackiness and fun, so it is strange when describing a dead person but Heany manages to jolt the reader in to recognising the seriousness with ‘knocked’, without sensationalising the accident.
The last line of the poem is singled out. After regular three line stanzas the last stanza is singular and the pathos captures the detachment that Heany has presented within himself throughout the poem. Heany presents children and family using visual images and symbols in this poem. We can see the bond between the family members but also the total isolation caused by such a devastating tragedy.
It is clear that in these two poems Heany has not undermined children in anyway, he has presented them in a very complex light. It is strange how different the reactions to death are in ‘The Early Purges’ and ‘Mid-Term Break’. Heany has explored two similar themes but created such different responses to them. The ideas, attitudes and experiences are put forward in thoughtful and intricate ways. In ‘The Early Purges’ he focuses on the innocence of children and then in ‘Mid-Term Break’ he concentrates on their responsibility and ability to adapt to situations. The techniques he uses are greatly effective and I find his poetry both interesting and moving.
