The Paradox of Grief
by Elizabeth Walz
A four-year-old boy stands on the sidewalk with his brothers, unaware of the danger that lies just a few feet away in the street. He sees his other brothers across the street and darts into the road to cross to them. Suddenly, he is hit by an unsuspecting car and killed. This tragic tale is the true story of Seamus Heaney’s brother Christopher. The young boy was struck and killed by a car when he was only four years old. Seamus Heaney, after learning about the tragedy, came back from boarding school to be with his family. A year later, he composed the poem “Mid-Term Break” to deal with his feelings about his brother’s passing (Responses to “Mid-Term Break””). By using phrases that call on emotions, a listless first-person narrator, and structural elements, “Mid-Term Break” argues that grief cannot be fully expressed.
One of Seamus Heaney’s recurring themes is death. Since the beginning of his writing career, he “has been much concerned with deaths of various kinds” (Deane). This is especially prevalent in his collection of poems Death of a Naturalist, which contains the poem “Mid-Term Break”. Written shortly after the death of Heaney’s younger brother, “Mid-Term Break” can be seen as Heaney’s “fall from innocence into experience” (Parker 65). Heaney has just experienced one of the most devastating losses that a person can experience: the death of a sibling. This event forces Heaney to wake up to reality. He comes home and is surrounded by people filled with strong emotions and he must deal with these emotions as well as with his own. As a result of being forced to deal with these emotions, Heaney has a “growing crisis of identity” (Collins 40). He does not know exactly how he is supposed to act and therefore distances himself from the situation altogether. Heaney deals with the loss of his brother in the only way that is relatively possible for him, and that is through writing a poem. The elements of that poem display the theme of death about which Heaney writes.
In order to show this theme, Seamus Heaney uses phrases that call on emotions in “Mid-Term Break”. Throughout the poem, the narrator does not reveal his emotions in any great capacity. The closest thing to emotion is found in the phrase “I was embarrassed by old men standing up to shake my hand” (8-9). He was embarrassed. That is the only thing that the reader is able to glean through the direct words of the poem about Heaney’s emotional state. However, Heaney is an attentive poet. He uses phrases and objective correlative in his poetry to appeal to the emotions of his readers. After reading through the poem, the reader comes to the realization that “there is so much emotion in the reading of the poem, if not in the lines. Heaney asks the reader to import the sorrow from themselves” (“Responses to “Mid-Term Break””). Several phrases in particular stand out as ones that create intense emotions in the reader. The phrase “bells knelling classes to a close” (2) is reminiscent of funeral bells. Any reference to funeral bells, whether direct or indirect, will automatically call to mind any memory that the reader has of a funeral. The emotions that accompany that memory—the sadness that comes with funeral bells—will consequently be brought out, causing the reader to associate these feelings with the subject of the poem. Later on, Heaney says that his mother “coughed out angry tearless sighs” (13). This has an emotional impact because the phrase expresses the paradox of grief. Grief is impossible to articulate, yet Heaney attempts to articulate it through the incomplete articulation of his mother’s sighs. This description also causes the reader to think about the emotions they would be experiencing in a similar situation. The reader can imagine that they would feel similar to the way that the mother is feeling and is able to sympathize with her. Heaney also calls on emotions by the phrase “I saw him for the first time in six weeks” (17-18). Any reader that has ever been separated from a sibling for a long period of time begins to relate to Heaney and imagination runs wild. The reader wonders what they would feel like if they saw their sibling for the first time in months in this condition. Emotions of fear, loneliness, and sorrow become jumbled together in the reader’s mind and become almost enough to bring them to tears. The reader is again close to tears when they read the phrase “the bumper knocked him clear” (21). The reader laments the loss of human life and especially the loss of a life so small that the bumper of a car could so easily end it. Multiple phrases found throughout “Mid-Term Break” call on the reader’s emotions through objective correlative and aid the reader in their understanding of the poem.
The reader is also aided in their comprehension of the poem through the use of a listless first-person narrator. By using listless narration, Heaney attempts to tell a story while also distancing himself from the situation. This portrays grief as a paradoxical element that cannot be articulated, yet Heaney attempts to explain it. In an interview, Seamus Heaney reflects on the death of his younger brother Christopher and remarks, “I can hardly bear to think about [it]” (“Responses to “Mid-Term Break””). If his emotions about this event were so strong many years after the event, they can only have been even stronger right after his brother’s death. Heaney does not want to deal with the emotional toil that writing about Christopher’s death will cause him, but he does want to do something to do with the pain. In order to find a middle ground, he writes in first person, but writes in such a way that he is not fully involved. It is interesting to observe that “though a neighbor (‘big Jim Evans’) is named, the speaker and the dead four-year-old are not” (Vendler 31). Heaney does not want to make the poem too personal, so he avoids naming either himself or his brother. Additionally, the poem is very straightforward and contains no evidence of Heaney’s internal emotions throughout the ordeal. He states the facts as they are and tells what he experienced, but there is nothing to suggest that he had any major emotional response to his brother’s death. There are no exclamation points or question marks as one might expect to find in a poem about death. Consequently, “Mid-Term Break” does not contain many direct author-written emotions. However, Heaney is able to write a poem with seemingly very few emotions because he knows how to write with emotion. T.S. Eliot once said, “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.” Seamus Heaney has emotions, as evidenced in other poems and also through the undertones present in “Mid-Term Break”, so he is able to effectively write without showing emotions while still saying what he needs and wants to say. This ability to appear emotionless gives the poem a listless feel and makes it clear that Heaney does not want to be fully involved in his brother’s death and that he has no suitable means of entirely expressing his grief. Through this, the reader is able to more fully understand Heaney’s experience and feelings.
The structural elements of the poem also help the reader gain insight into the event behind the poem. The poem is very predictable up until the last line. Heaney consistently uses three lines per stanza and the reader becomes comfortable. Although the subject of the poem is macabre and depressing, the reader still grows accustomed to the poem because of its predictability. As a result, the reader is caught off-guard by the final line that stands alone. This final line finally gives the readers a hint as to the age of the deceased. Not only is the age of four shocking in itself, but the solidarity of the line adds extra emphasis. This is also the only line in the poem that has any sort of rhyme. No other line in the poem rhymes with the line before it. However, the final two lines break this pattern when they say “No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear. / A four-foot box, a foot for every year” (21-22). Clearly, “clear” and “year” rhyme and stand out to the reader because of their deviance from the expected. The unexpected solidarity and rhyme scheme of this last line add emphasis to the line and to the poem as a whole. The impact of this final line helps the reader to understand just how strong an impression Christopher’s death made on Heaney and how difficult it was to fully express the grief that was felt.
Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” argues the paradox of grief: that grief is impossible to articulate and yet people attempt to explain it. The poem uses phrases that call on emotions, a listless first-person narrator, and structural elements to display the theme of death that is so obvious in this poem. Although the poem is not blatantly poignant, the emotions it elicits in the readers are enough to make it a very intense and touching poem. This poem is so affective in part because death is universal. As a result, Heaney did not have to do anything new with structure or style. Instead, he was able to work “with what was to hand and brought it to great powers of expression and art as well as a significant subject matter” (Tamplin). As a result of the straightforward structure of “Mid-Term Break”, Heaney was able to incorporate elements that truly portray the theme of death and make this poem a piece of art. “Mid-Term Break” acknowledges the fact that grief is difficult to articulate and can be only slightly articulated through the acknowledgement that complete articulation is ultimately impossible.
One of Seamus Heaney’s recurring themes is death. Since the beginning of his writing career, he “has been much concerned with deaths of various kinds” (Deane). This is especially prevalent in his collection of poems Death of a Naturalist, which contains the poem “Mid-Term Break”. Written shortly after the death of Heaney’s younger brother, “Mid-Term Break” can be seen as Heaney’s “fall from innocence into experience” (Parker 65). Heaney has just experienced one of the most devastating losses that a person can experience: the death of a sibling. This event forces Heaney to wake up to reality. He comes home and is surrounded by people filled with strong emotions and he must deal with these emotions as well as with his own. As a result of being forced to deal with these emotions, Heaney has a “growing crisis of identity” (Collins 40). He does not know exactly how he is supposed to act and therefore distances himself from the situation altogether. Heaney deals with the loss of his brother in the only way that is relatively possible for him, and that is through writing a poem. The elements of that poem display the theme of death about which Heaney writes.
In order to show this theme, Seamus Heaney uses phrases that call on emotions in “Mid-Term Break”. Throughout the poem, the narrator does not reveal his emotions in any great capacity. The closest thing to emotion is found in the phrase “I was embarrassed by old men standing up to shake my hand” (8-9). He was embarrassed. That is the only thing that the reader is able to glean through the direct words of the poem about Heaney’s emotional state. However, Heaney is an attentive poet. He uses phrases and objective correlative in his poetry to appeal to the emotions of his readers. After reading through the poem, the reader comes to the realization that “there is so much emotion in the reading of the poem, if not in the lines. Heaney asks the reader to import the sorrow from themselves” (“Responses to “Mid-Term Break””). Several phrases in particular stand out as ones that create intense emotions in the reader. The phrase “bells knelling classes to a close” (2) is reminiscent of funeral bells. Any reference to funeral bells, whether direct or indirect, will automatically call to mind any memory that the reader has of a funeral. The emotions that accompany that memory—the sadness that comes with funeral bells—will consequently be brought out, causing the reader to associate these feelings with the subject of the poem. Later on, Heaney says that his mother “coughed out angry tearless sighs” (13). This has an emotional impact because the phrase expresses the paradox of grief. Grief is impossible to articulate, yet Heaney attempts to articulate it through the incomplete articulation of his mother’s sighs. This description also causes the reader to think about the emotions they would be experiencing in a similar situation. The reader can imagine that they would feel similar to the way that the mother is feeling and is able to sympathize with her. Heaney also calls on emotions by the phrase “I saw him for the first time in six weeks” (17-18). Any reader that has ever been separated from a sibling for a long period of time begins to relate to Heaney and imagination runs wild. The reader wonders what they would feel like if they saw their sibling for the first time in months in this condition. Emotions of fear, loneliness, and sorrow become jumbled together in the reader’s mind and become almost enough to bring them to tears. The reader is again close to tears when they read the phrase “the bumper knocked him clear” (21). The reader laments the loss of human life and especially the loss of a life so small that the bumper of a car could so easily end it. Multiple phrases found throughout “Mid-Term Break” call on the reader’s emotions through objective correlative and aid the reader in their understanding of the poem.
The reader is also aided in their comprehension of the poem through the use of a listless first-person narrator. By using listless narration, Heaney attempts to tell a story while also distancing himself from the situation. This portrays grief as a paradoxical element that cannot be articulated, yet Heaney attempts to explain it. In an interview, Seamus Heaney reflects on the death of his younger brother Christopher and remarks, “I can hardly bear to think about [it]” (“Responses to “Mid-Term Break””). If his emotions about this event were so strong many years after the event, they can only have been even stronger right after his brother’s death. Heaney does not want to deal with the emotional toil that writing about Christopher’s death will cause him, but he does want to do something to do with the pain. In order to find a middle ground, he writes in first person, but writes in such a way that he is not fully involved. It is interesting to observe that “though a neighbor (‘big Jim Evans’) is named, the speaker and the dead four-year-old are not” (Vendler 31). Heaney does not want to make the poem too personal, so he avoids naming either himself or his brother. Additionally, the poem is very straightforward and contains no evidence of Heaney’s internal emotions throughout the ordeal. He states the facts as they are and tells what he experienced, but there is nothing to suggest that he had any major emotional response to his brother’s death. There are no exclamation points or question marks as one might expect to find in a poem about death. Consequently, “Mid-Term Break” does not contain many direct author-written emotions. However, Heaney is able to write a poem with seemingly very few emotions because he knows how to write with emotion. T.S. Eliot once said, “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.” Seamus Heaney has emotions, as evidenced in other poems and also through the undertones present in “Mid-Term Break”, so he is able to effectively write without showing emotions while still saying what he needs and wants to say. This ability to appear emotionless gives the poem a listless feel and makes it clear that Heaney does not want to be fully involved in his brother’s death and that he has no suitable means of entirely expressing his grief. Through this, the reader is able to more fully understand Heaney’s experience and feelings.
The structural elements of the poem also help the reader gain insight into the event behind the poem. The poem is very predictable up until the last line. Heaney consistently uses three lines per stanza and the reader becomes comfortable. Although the subject of the poem is macabre and depressing, the reader still grows accustomed to the poem because of its predictability. As a result, the reader is caught off-guard by the final line that stands alone. This final line finally gives the readers a hint as to the age of the deceased. Not only is the age of four shocking in itself, but the solidarity of the line adds extra emphasis. This is also the only line in the poem that has any sort of rhyme. No other line in the poem rhymes with the line before it. However, the final two lines break this pattern when they say “No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear. / A four-foot box, a foot for every year” (21-22). Clearly, “clear” and “year” rhyme and stand out to the reader because of their deviance from the expected. The unexpected solidarity and rhyme scheme of this last line add emphasis to the line and to the poem as a whole. The impact of this final line helps the reader to understand just how strong an impression Christopher’s death made on Heaney and how difficult it was to fully express the grief that was felt.
Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” argues the paradox of grief: that grief is impossible to articulate and yet people attempt to explain it. The poem uses phrases that call on emotions, a listless first-person narrator, and structural elements to display the theme of death that is so obvious in this poem. Although the poem is not blatantly poignant, the emotions it elicits in the readers are enough to make it a very intense and touching poem. This poem is so affective in part because death is universal. As a result, Heaney did not have to do anything new with structure or style. Instead, he was able to work “with what was to hand and brought it to great powers of expression and art as well as a significant subject matter” (Tamplin). As a result of the straightforward structure of “Mid-Term Break”, Heaney was able to incorporate elements that truly portray the theme of death and make this poem a piece of art. “Mid-Term Break” acknowledges the fact that grief is difficult to articulate and can be only slightly articulated through the acknowledgement that complete articulation is ultimately impossible.
Works Cited
Collins, Floyd. Seamus Heaney: The Crisis of Identity. Cranbury, NJ: Rosemont Publishing & Printing Corp., 2003. Print.
Deane, Seamus. "Powers of Earth and Visions of Air." Trans. Array Seamus Heaney: The Shaping Spirit. Catherine Malloy and Phyllis Carey. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1996. 27. Print.
Parker, Michael W. Seamus Heaney: The Making of the Poet. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993. Print.
"Responses to "Mid-Term Break"." Seamus Heaney. Moyle Park College, n.d. Web. 8 Nov 2012. <http://resources.teachnet.ie/ckelly/heaney/Responses Mid-Term Break.htm>.
Tamplin, Ronald. Seamus Heaney. Milton Keynes, PA: Open University Press, 1989. Print.
Vendler, Helen. Seamus Heaney. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. Print.
Deane, Seamus. "Powers of Earth and Visions of Air." Trans. Array Seamus Heaney: The Shaping Spirit. Catherine Malloy and Phyllis Carey. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1996. 27. Print.
Parker, Michael W. Seamus Heaney: The Making of the Poet. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993. Print.
"Responses to "Mid-Term Break"." Seamus Heaney. Moyle Park College, n.d. Web. 8 Nov 2012. <http://resources.teachnet.ie/ckelly/heaney/Responses Mid-Term Break.htm>.
Tamplin, Ronald. Seamus Heaney. Milton Keynes, PA: Open University Press, 1989. Print.
Vendler, Helen. Seamus Heaney. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. Print.