Mid Term Break - Poem analysis

        It is only really in the second stanza that we learn something is seriously wrong. His father is crying. In the next line we know it is something to do with a funeral, obviously a particularly bad one seeing as he is crying. It is ironic that “Big Jim Evans” says that is was a hard blow, because it was, literally a hard blow, the car hit the boy hard.

        In the third stanza, he is embarrassed by old men shaking his hand. This isn’t normal for him. There is enjambment to the next stanza, and the fact that the poet uses “hand” as the last word, helps to link the stanzas. It is as if they are also holding hands. The same thing happens in the fourth stanza.

        In the fourth stanza, there is a reference to him having brothers. This is when we might start to think that it was a brother in the car crash, but the poet never actually tells us who was in the crash.  Again, there is enjambment to the fifth stanza, which is linked by the words “held my hand”.

        In the fifth stanza, we know that the mother has already been crying.  There are a lot of full stops in this stanza, which accentuate the finality of the words. He imagines his brother as horrible. He thinks of him as a corpse - not even as his brother. We know that it is imagination because in the second last stanza we know he only has one bruise on his forehead.

        In the next stanza, he calls the place where his brother is “the room”. He doesn’t associate it as being part of the house. The white of the snowdrops and the fact that the corpse is pale, is a big contrast to the poppy bruise.

        In the second last stanza, we find out that he was only four years old, he was very young. We also learn that it was a car crash. It says there were no “gaudy scars” so we know for sure that the boy was imagining the corpse being wrapped in bandages.

        The last line is different from the others, in that it is very short and final. The syntax makes it a very striking sentence. It makes a huge impact. It is only here that we know the whole story.

        There is no rhyming scheme. The rhythm is slow and pounding, like a funeral march. It is a huge contrast to the title.