In the poem, "Mid-term Break" by Seamus Heaney, a boy becomes aware of the death of his younger brother through facing his experiences. The boy runs into each occurring event, meeting people that are dealing with the tragic lost, and then realizing what everything is really about the death of his brother. Each stanza has its importance towards the poem and to the boy. Throughout the poem, the boy experiences how different aged people act towards death, which seems to help the boy realize that death is a tragic event. .
In the first stanza, the boy describes to the reader that he cannot wait until school gets over, not realizing the bigger and hurtful things in life - death. I can tell that he isn't really fond of school "Counting bells knelling classes to a close." Therefore, the first stanza shows how ignorant the boy is in the beginning.
After his neighbors pick him up, he finds his father, who never cries at funerals, crying. Through this, the boy learns that although his father is a man, his dad could still cry and let his feelings out because he, who was killed, was a really special and close person to the father. Big Jim Evans told the boy that the accident really shook his father up. The older one gets, the more one will realize death, and its impact towards everyone, is on its way.
Then, the boy runs into the baby who is laughing. The baby isn't crying like his father, and is not aware of the tragic event. The death of the brother seems to be unimportant to the baby. However, the event makes the boy feel embarrassed when the old men stood up to shake his hand "When I came in, and I was embarrassed/By old men standing up to shake my hand". This shows that he's more mature to understand the meaning of death, but still too young to cry and feel sad like his father. .
In the fourth stanza, the readers become aware of the speaker of the poem. In this case, it is the boy, and we are told he is the eldest of the children in the family "Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest".