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The Loss of a Child Essay

Decent Essays

The poem Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney is an incredibly deep poem about the loss of a loved one. "There is a dramatic irony to it that is noticed when read through a couple of times. It relates to the Child's position in that his life was broken short i.e. "Mid-term Break". It had not been completed." (1) The author leaves that information out until the very end, but there is an implication of something being wrong throughout the piece. "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." (2) Finally, in the last sentence, "A four foot box, a foot for every year." (2) it becomes very clear that the child died. This was very sad for me. I was reminded of an …show more content…

I was in a `fog' and I was barely able to stay awake. I believe he knew something was wrong because he would not stop crying until I went to him, and if it was not for him, I would not be alive today. The next month was difficult to endure. I was becoming increasingly more depressed, and began taking my frustration out on him. He was only ten months old; what could a ten-month-old child do but be a baby and need things? I was helpless to give him even the basic needs of human beings, i.e. food,clothing, shelter, love, etc. I was at a breaking point, and I was not sure how to stop myself from becoming like little shards of broken crystal. I found the answer to that question of what to do in a place I never expected. His father called me, after being gone for the better part of his life, and asked us to move to California. I moved November 4, 1994 to Whittier, CA. I arrived at the airport, in a strange place, with people I knew nothing about and I felt the worst fear of my life. I took that fear out on my child. A security officer came to me and said, "He is tired and hungry too, you don't have to take it out on him." I realized for the first time how cruel I was becoming to my child, my precious little boy, who never asked to be here; it never occurred to me that my behavior was noticed by others as well. We stayed in California for a month, and then his father decided that he could

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