As most people would think by reading this poems title, it is not about a joyous mid-term break of happy children enjoying their holidays. Indeed when I at first heard of the poem from my teacher I had the same thoughts. But in reality the poem is a sad one, which involves death and a sad family.
The poem is memorable to me because it involves many drastic and awful verses that describe the death of a young child of four years of age being killed in a car accident. The death resulted in many people crying and grieving. .
The poem starts off on a sad note, describing a boy sitting alone in suspense in the "college sick bay". This already gave me a gloomy picture in my mind of a depressed boy awaiting bad news. "I sat all morning" shows that he must have been waiting for quite some time.
"At two o"clock our neighbours drove me home" concludes and finalises that the occasion was truly sad since his parents did not drive him home and the poet does not mention anything about the neighbours talking cheerfully to him.
There is an old saying that says "Men do not cry". However as the boy entered his house he met his father crying. The death had broken his heart, showing the dead had been someone close to him. The poem is memorable because I have read this same line, time and time again and so it has left a clear picture in my mind. .
Big Jim Evans - the big man of the house, all he could say was it was a hard blow. His name suggests that he was a huge fellow who would control everything and was well respected. But here he too was sad from the death, as it was a loss for him too.
The baby did not know what was going on and was not aware of the tragic moment in its life. It had just lost a sibling. However it continued to coo happily with no worries unlike the rest of its family that were in grief. If it were older though it would have realized the loss.
Usually, old men do not get up to greet somebody younger.