In Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break,” the speaker recounts the events following his four-year-old brother’s death who was killed in a road accident. The speaker is picked up from school by his neighbors and taken home where he finds his parents distraught over the loss of their son.
There are also strangers who sympathize with the family. I have lost loved ones, and Heaney perfectly explains how it feels to be surrounded by people who can only empathize with you but do not understand your pain.
For me, the most heartbreaking line in the poem was, “A four-foot box, a foot for every year.” I think the poem is filled with raw emotion and aptly captures feelings associated with loss.
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