Mid-Term Break I sat all morning in the college sick bay Counting bells knelling classes to a 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 my mother held my hand.

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. At ten o'clock the 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. Paler 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.

by Seamus Heaney

12. How long has it been since he was last home?

13. What has happened in the meantime?

14. How old was the accident victim?

16. Choose an image you thought to be particularly effective and explain your choice.​