Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney

Tony Attwood

Curtis Harrell

ENGL 1023

9:30-10:45 T,TH

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Mid-Term Break Response Essay

In the poem Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney, he talks about an experience of a young man coming home from college because his younger brother has passed away in a car accident . This poem reminds me of when I had to go home my first year of college because my best friend from childhood passed away from an unexpected accident.

In the first paragraph when the author says “counting bells knelling classes to a close. At two o’clock our neighbors drove me home.” (Seamus Heaney pg. 288) The first sentence here makes me think about how after my dad called me that morning telling me the news how I was so stunned that everything around me felt numb and if time and everything and everyone around me were dragging. His wording in these sentences may not be easy to relate to for everyone but it was to me due to the feelings I had when this happened. The second sentence here where he says his neighbors drove him home relates to me in how my girlfriend at the time had to drive me home because I was really in no shape to be driving. I know there isn’t much to these sentences but just the little bit written in those two sentences can make me think of these events and everything I was thinking during that time.

In the second paragraph when he met his father crying on the porch was a powerful statement to me. The reason being that I had never seen my dad cry before, I mean I had seen him really sad and on the verge of crying at his fathers funeral, but

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never like this. When I finally got home after a trip that seemed like forever, because

all I could do was think about where I was going and why, I was surprised. My dad got right up and walked over to me and hugged me and we both started crying or more like sobbing. I had never seen this side of my father and it was like for the first time ever we connected and felt the same thing about something. The next line where he says “ He had always taken funerals in his stride “ (pg. 288) made me think of my father in the way that I had never seen him cry. Dennis, the friend of mine that this poem reminds me of, had always been around while we were growing up and it was like his second home at our house and my dad had always treated him as one of his own. Being so close to the family his death really hit my dad pretty hard too and all he could say to me was “ that could have been you son and I have know idea what I would do.” As horrible as this event was it really brought me and my dad a lot closer together. When something like this happens you really stop taking so many things for granted and I think the author was somewhat saying that in this poem just not in those words.

Towards the end of the poem where the author talks about seeing him