15 pages • 30 minutes read
Mid-Term Break
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Symbols & Motifs
The Bells
The bells that appear in Line 2, foreshadowing the tragedy to come, place the poem in a context of Christian tradition, in which the ringing of bells has a spiritual resonance, symbolically linking humankind to God. By using the word “knelling” to describe their action, Heaney establishes a fatalistic tone, since a knell is the particular type of bell-ringing historically used to announce a death. Although Heaney was brought up Catholic, he was not particularly religious. In a materialist philosophy of the world where life on earth is all that can be known, the bells therefore represent a desperate and perhaps pointless attempt to communicate with an unreachable God, a thwarted communication that cannot assuage the horrible finality of death.
The Four-Foot Box
Throughout his work, Heaney shows a fascination for things well-made by human hands. In “Mid-Term Break,” this takes the form of his younger brother’s coffin, a four-foot box, which appears twice, first in Line 20, and again in Line 22. In using the term “box” rather than “coffin,” Heaney is honoring the plain speech of his rural Irish roots and yielding to the desire to euphemize what has happened to his brother. The emphasis on the box’s dimensions illustrates the height of the very young boy, increasing the pathos of his death at such a young age, and evokes the care taken by the craftsman in his measurements, suggesting the care taken in forming the poem as well. Like the four-foot box, the type of poem Heaney wants to write is perfectly fitted to the occasion and unembellished.
The car
In a poem where what is unsaid is as important as what is said, the car that hit and killed Heaney’s little brother is a key motif. It is mentioned only in the penultimate line, and even then only indirectly: “The bumper knocked him clear” (Line 21). Avoiding a reference to the entire vehicle, the poem instead uses synecdoche—using a part of something to refer to the whole thing—alluding to the car as a “bumper.” The device denies agency to the driver, making the car seem like an impersonal, blind force causing death impersonally.
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By Seamus Heaney
