8/9/2019 7b - Mid-Term Break

1/1

Mid-Term Break

A four foot box, a foot for every year.

Seamus Heaney

The poems final line is both poignant and skilful. We learn that the size of the coffin is the measure of the childs life. The line is almost dependent uponmonosyllabic words, which lends each word emphasis.

Consider the contrast between the earlier sections of the poem in which heremembers when he first arrived home and the final section of the poemwhere, alone with his infant brother, Heaney can be natural.

Form and Structure

The poem has a clear formal structure. It is written in three line verses with aloose iambic metre. There are occasional rhymes but the last two lines form arhyming couplet, and emphasise the brevity of the infants life.

Comparative Ideas

The poem is about memory so it might usefully be compared with Miracle onSt Davids Day or any of the other Heaney poems.

It is about family so it could be compared with Follower, Digging, OnceUpon a Time, Old Man, Old Man

It is written from a childs point of view so it could be compared to The Barn .