In this poem about loss, grief, the fragility of happiness and growing up, the author processes the death of his younger brother who died at the age of four in a road accident. He describes the feelings and impressions when he takes a break from college to visit his family’s home. There he encounters his crying parents and friends of the family giving him their condolences. The morning after he goes to the room where his brother’s body lays in a small 4-foot-long coffin.

Poem · Ireland · 1966