IGCSE Poetry Revision Sheet - 2

Poem Mid-term Break

Poet Seamus Heaney
Country of Origin Ireland
Subject matter Reaction of the death of the younger brother by different people
and in different situations.
Voice Observant, detached in the first 5 stanzas, calm with
understanding
Poem’s structure 7 stanzas 3 parts

Setting In the college, Living room, bedroom

1 part (1st stanza): pessimistic – knelling of the bells
2nd part: embarrassed – old men shaking his hand to say they
were sorry for his troubles
Key Quotes “Counting bells knelling classes to a close” : the mood
(including “my father crying”, “Old men stand up to shake my hand and tell
me they were sorry for my troubles”
Figurative language “coughed out angry tearless sighs”
“Corpse, stanched and bandaged”: has not understood that his
brother has died, not in touch with his feelings in public
“Snow drops and candles soothed the bedside” : he has
understood and he is feeling sadness mixed with calmness.
Poetic Techniques The tone of the poem changes through the sections, see above
See below
Key Themes Human Nature regarding death: How difficult it is for us express
our true feelings of sorrow in public and grief and mourning
Links with (which On my first Sonne: extreme grief on the death of a son by parents
other poem?)

Techniques used in the poem

Heaney uses language to make his message clearer. The mood of the poem is set almost
immediately in the second line, “Counting bells knelling classes to a close”. Assonance
and alliteration is used to emphasize the funeral sound of the bells and the feeling of time
dragging. Assonance is used again in lines 14-45, this time in his repetition of the short
‘a’ in ‘, ‘ambulance’, arrived’, ‘stanched’, and ‘bandaged’, emphasizing the stopping
short of life. In the last section, he uses the personal pronoun ‘I’ to indicate that the
gravity of the situation has finally hit him.

The general tone of the poem changes through each part and it symbolizes the boy’s
feelings about the death of his younger brother.

Read the essays on human behavior and family life.