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
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>
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> 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’
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>

## 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.