Welcome, this week I have number 3 from my list of top 100 Irish poems. A deep and meaningful Irish poem. The poem is about Heaney’s brother, who was killed by a car in 1953 when he was only 4 years old, and Heaney was only 13.
I have been sharing these Irish poems every week, and this one certainly will bring a tear to your eye. The poem is direct, and Heaney holds nothing back. The last line sent shivers down my spine.
I send these Irish poems out every week in my weekly dose of the Irish email newsletter. You can join it here, only one email every Friday.
I am not going to say much more myself, so here are a few notes on the poem and a link to read it in full:nbsp;
Mid-Term Break
A four-foot box, a foot for every year.
Mid-Term Break comes from Death of a Naturalist, Seamus Heaney’s first collection, published by Faber and Faber in 1966. It is based on the death of his little brother Christopher, who was knocked down by a car near the family farm at Mossbawn in February 1953. Christopher was about four years old. Heaney, then thirteen, was a boarder at St Columb’s College in Derry and was brought home for the funeral.
The poem is told by the eldest son, and much of its power comes from how out of place he feels. Grief turns the family’s normal roles upside down. The grown-ups around him cope in their own ways, while he is suddenly treated like a man. Nobody makes speeches, and Heaney never tells us directly what he is feeling.
That restraint is the point. The language stays plain and calm almost to the end, so the small details do the work. Then the last line, standing alone on the page, lands with a shock that readers never forget.
Read the full poem: Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney at the Poetry Foundation. You will also find it in Death of a Naturalist (Faber and Faber).