Analysis of the poem "Mid-term break" and what we are going to write in the 2 questions

Analysis of the poem

This poem is mainly focusing on the speaker’s childhood memory. This was a really saddening break, not a relaxing and happy one.
The first stanza is informing us that the speaker is waiting at the sick bay for his neighbor to fetch him and does not make up a clue that what was the purpose of the break. However, the fact that the speaker is waiting at the sick bay give the sense that something is wrong. Also, the word “kneeling” describes the slow steady strokes of a bell at a funeral service like the sound of an old school bell announcing the changes of class in school. The use of the word 'knelling' rather than 'tolling' for the school bell has connotations of death.
The second stanza shows how devastating this tragic accident affected the speaker’s family. The fact that “He had always taken funerals in his stride” shows that this tragic accident is a really huge blow to his father as the speaker saw his father crying. In contrast, in the third stanza, the baby 'cooed and laughed and rocked the pram', showing that in some aspects, family life went on as usual and that the baby was immature and did not understand what was happening.
The third and fourth stanzas are linked by enjambment and describes the speaker’s feelings on confronting the people who paid their respects. The speaker also felt embarrassed as the old man shook his hand and expressed his sorrow. This was probably uncomfortable and uncommon to the speaker as he was in a situation of reversed role. He was also knowledgeable about the “whispers” that he was the eldest child in the family.
The second and fifth stanzas are also linked and show how differently the speaker’s mother reacted as compared to his father after the tragic accident. As she 'coughed out angry tearless sighs', it shows that she was too upset to cry and probably did not have any tears to cry out anymore.
In the fifth stanza, Heaney describes in a way that the speaker did not realize the body was his brother’s as the poem mentioned that the ambulance brought the 'corpse'. However, in the sixth stanza, the speaker realized it as he went alone to see the body of his brother. He describes that the presence of snowdrops and soothed his feelings. The speaker again uses enjambment to link this stanza with the seventh, mentioning that his brother now looked paler than the last time he had seen him six weeks previously. The metaphor 'Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple', poppies being colour of blood as well as a sign of the dead. The final line of the seventh stanza tells us that the little boy was not ran over by the car but banged on one side as he had no “gaudy scars”.
'Mid-Term Break' ends with a single line 'A four foot box, a foot for every year' describes how young the boy was and how small the coffin was. The poem begins with devoid of emotion. Then it progresses into a phase of describing discomfort and difficult emotions in the presence of strangers.

What we are writing for the 2 questions

A) The writer was feeling sad. For the evidence, we are going to include the line “Counting bells knelling classes to a close” as this shows that he feels time is going pass really slowly and this was due to the fact he is really sad when he heard the news of his sibling dying. The writer also felt embarrassed and this can be proven from the lines in stanza 3, evident when the strangers told him they were “sorry for the trouble” and “whispering informed strangers that he was the eldest” made him feel embarrassed. He also feel regretful as the poem states that “I saw him for the first time in six weeks” this line shows that the writer had last seen his brother 6 weeks ago . However, his brother is now dead. Thus, he is regretful as he feel that he should spend more time with his brother and cherish him more while he is alive.

B) The speaker uses several literal devices. The first one he used is onomatopoeia. This can be supported from stanza 3 of the poem. In the line “the baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram”, “cooed and laughed” is the onomatopoeia. This sets a very awkward mood as it is ironic how the baby is ignorant about the surroundings and still being so happy when everyone else is so sad. The other literal device used is personification. The line “And candles soothed the bedside” showed the use of a personification. This helped to lessen the heavy and depressed mood in the poem, as the candles seem to bo comforting the speaker and the people present.