Mid Term Break

Context
The context of this poem is the death of Seamus Heaney’s younger brother, Christopher who was killed by a car at the age of four.

This also acts as the subject of the poem presented like an autobiography, so it is easy for readers to establish what is actually going on.

His brother died in 1952 with the poem to be released 14 years later.

The poem uses 8 stanzas to represent Heaney’s 8 siblings, with the final one being much shorter, this is in reference to his younger brother’s life being cut short.

After Heaney’s death, he was buried besides his brother, Christopher. “I sat all morning in the college sick bay Counting bells knelling classes to a close.” The word “knell” is appropriate in the context of a poem about death because it is the sound of a funeral bell. We do not normally associate school bells with death but this day was to prove horrifically different for the poet. The rhythm and alliteration also reinforce the mournful tone. The ‘c’ an ‘l’ sounds, as well as the internal rhyme of “bells” and “knelling” help to suggest both the idea of finality and of time seeming to slow down. The poet is driven home by his neighbours and not his parents, another unusual event preparing the reader for the idea that something is terribly wrong. The fact that Heaney remembers the precise time, “two o’clock” is convincing as we all tend to remember precise timings when recalling traumatic, like changing events.

Subject
Much like the context, the subject of this poem is the death of Seamus Heaney’s younger brother, Christopher who was killed by a car at the age of four.

The poem is written from the perspective of Heaney and shows us a young man having to deal with a terrible trauma.

Heaney reflects on his denial as he “sat in the college sick bay, counting bells knelling class to a close.” He doesn’t seem to speak about the tragedy until the ambulance arrives with the corpse. The snowdrops and candles that “soothed the bedside” are supposed to make the mourners feel better as they face this tragedy. This appears to work as Heaney begins to refer to Christopher as ‘him’ rather than ‘the corpse’

Action
The poem has  3 separate scenes all related to the same subject.

Firstly, it shows Heaney in the sick bay. Presumably, he only just heard about his brother so he sits in shock for the whole day.

Next, Heaney goes home to speak with family and friends, he’s still in denial as he doesn’t show any emotions and even feels embarrassed as people meet him.

Finally, Heaney recalls his memory of seeing the body, the corpse of his four year old brother.

This sequence allows for Heaney to show his feelings of shock and denial as he seems awkward prior to actually seeing the corpse.

In fact, the whole thing feels somewhat awkward, from Jim Evans stating “it was a hard blow” (as in, he was literally talking about Christopher’s blow to the head), to “I was embarrassed by old men standing up to shake my hand”

But later Heaney seems to come out of this episode of shock as he reaches the blunt conclusion of the final stanza in the poem.

Symbolism
The symbolism in this poem is quite blunt as it all adds as a commentary to Heaney’s recollection of the tragic event.

Jim Evans states it’s a “hard blow”, possibly commenting on the idea that no one else would understand the family’s pain

As the strangers whisper around him, the letter ‘S’ is repeated, this could be an emphasis of the whispers around him as it could also symbolise the sloshing sound of  walking through blood as Heaney tries to deny this tragedy and move forwards

The text uses 7 stanzas, all containing 3 lines with no rhyme, however at the end of the seventh stanza we are given an eighth stanza containing only one line. “A four-foot box, a foot for every year”, this line feels out of place in terms of structure and acts as a sharp point, highlighting Heaney’s pain, it is also the only line to rhyme with the one before it.