MID TERM BREAK

I sat all morning in the college sick bay

Counting bells knelling classes to close

At two o’clock our neighbours drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying-

He had always taken funerals in his stride-

And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram

When I came in, and I was embarrassed

By old men standing up to shake my hand.

And tell me they were ‘sorry for my trouble’

Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,

Away at school, as mother held my hand.

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs

At ten o’clock an ambulance arrived

With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

Next morning I went up into the room.  Snowdrops

And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him

For the first time in six weeks. Pale now,

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,

He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot.

No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four-foot box, a foot for every year.

1          Summarize the poem in five sentences                                                           

2          The baby’s reactions differ from those of the father.  Do you agree?  Explain          

3          (i) what caused the child’s death?  Give illustrations                                                

             (ii)  How old was the child when he died?                                                               

4          Old men stand up to shake the persona’s hand.  Why does this ‘embarrass’ him?      

5          Identify and illustrate one stylistic device used in the poem                                      

6          Give the meaning of the following expressions:                                                         

            (i)  …………..had always taken funerals in his stride

            (ii)……..it was a hard blow.