Seamus+Heany-+Mid-term+break

Text p. 604 of the shorter Ninth Edition.**
 * Seamus Heany, “Mid-Term Break”

I sat all morning in the college sick bay Counting bells knelling classes to a close, At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home. In the porch I met my father crying— He had always taken funerals in his stride— And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow. The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram When I came in, and I was embarrassed By old men standing up to shake my hand And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble," Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest, Away at school, as my mother held my hand In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses. Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now, Wearing a poppy bruise on the left temple, He lay in the four foot box as in a cot. No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear. A four foot box, a foot for every year.

//Look up the author's biography before you begin the questions.//
 * __Reading Questions__**

1. What is the point of view? How does this contribute to the effect/ meaning of the poem?

2. The most emotional line is the last, "A four foot box, a foot for every year." What information does that line give the reader? What emotional impact does it have?

3. The only light note is, "The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram." Why do you think the author included that image? What effect does it have on the tone? What do you think is the underlying meaning of showing the baby's contentedness?

4. Although the poem doesn't specifically say, how do you think the narrator feels not having seen the little boy for six weeks?