The Lesson and Mid-term Break Essay -- English Literature

Introduction to The Lesson and Mid-term Break "The Lesson" tells the story of a 10 year old boy who has lost his father in the duration of school time. It goes on the say he's trapped and although he feels grief for the death of his father he realises that he can use the death to "bind the bullies' fist". "Mid-Term Break" is about the loss of a brother. It goes on to say that life goes on even though he has lost his brother and he witnesses things he does not normally experience (his father crying). "Mid-Term Break" Meaning The meaning of "Mid-Term Break" is to tell the story of an accident involving a young child and a vehicle. He tries to explain how life goes on and the death of the boy's brother doesn't mean that life stops. It goes on to show that because his brother has died certain things happen that he doesn't usually see "I met my father crying" and " Old men standing up to shake my hand". It ends with the powerful and chilling line "a four foot box, a foot for every year" This shows that the boy was very young and had a small coffin because he was only 4 years of age. Structure The poems structure is very neat and very tidy. He chooses to write in three line stanzas because this allows the poem to flow easily and allows the stanza below it the link in with its predecessor. By also having three line stanzas helps the last line have more of a "punch" feeling because it breaks the mould. Heaney avoids using rhyme in this piece because we usually associate rhyme with happiness and glee. Because of this reason Heaney purposely makes this poem sad and hopeless. Analysing The mood changes throughout the poem. At the start the mood is sombre, sad and mysterious but when it reache... ...death. "Pride, like a goldfish, flashed a sudden fin": we can imagine the goldfish swimming in their bowl, perhaps set in the sunshine on a windowsill. The sun catches a goldfish at a certain angle, and the gold of its scales suddenly shines brightly. The speaker, caught in the sunshine of all this attention and sympathy, suddenly feels pride shining in him. At no point in this poem does the speaker express sadness at the loss of his father. However, he is aware that he should feel something, and his shame at the lack of feeling is in conflict with his relief and his pride. What is uppermost in the speaker's mind is the confined little world of the school (rather like the "shining prison" of the goldfish bowl). His life is centred on school, the bullying, his other school-mates. I think the bitter lesson he learns is about his own self-centredness.