Mid-Term Break (Junior Cert English): Revision Notes
📚 Revision Notes
Quote Bank
| Quote | Explanation |
|---|---|
| "Counting bells knelling classes to a close." | The word 'knelling' suggests funeral bells, foreshadowing death. The waiting at school adds to the tension. |
| "I met my father crying— He had always taken funerals in his stride—" | Seeing his father cry is shocking for the speaker, as he had always been strong in the past. |
| "The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram" | The baby's innocence contrasts with the grief around it, emphasising the difference in understanding death. |
| "Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest, Away at school, as my mother held my hand" | The whispers and formalities show how grief is often expressed in routine, detached ways. |
| "Snowdrops and candles soothed the bedside;" | 'Snowdrops' and 'candles' create a peaceful, almost religious image, softening the harsh reality of death. |
| "Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple," | The 'poppy' symbolises remembrance and the fragility of life. 'Wearing' suggests the bruise could be removed, adding a sense of detachment. |
| "He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot." | Comparing the coffin to a cot highlights the child's innocence and makes the death even more tragic. |
| "A four-foot box, a foot for every year." | The final line delivers the emotional impact of the child's death with stark simplicity, reinforcing the smallness of the coffin and his young age. |