Death Of A Naturalist Flashcards
Title of poem
- ‘Death of a Naturalist’
- student/expert of nature
- foreshadows his dissociation from nature
Suggests nature is important to man
‘Heart of the townland’
Suggests nature is constantly at odds with itself
- ‘Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun’
- flax is being punished by sun
- confrontational tone may reflect the power of nature
Suggests child finds pleasure in nature despite it’s revolting nature at times
- ‘Bubbles gargled delicately’
- gargling sound is usually disgusting
- delicately makes it seem more pleasant and elegant,
Reflects enthusiasm of childhood
- ‘But best of all was the warm thick slobber’
- ‘best of all’
- ‘slobber’ reflects naivety and innocence
Suggests children are more appreciative of our environment than us
Listing
- ‘Bluebottles’
- ‘Dragon-flies, spotted butterflies’
- ‘Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water’
Dedication to his naturalist hobby
‘Every spring’
Shows the extent of the speakers fascination with nature
- ‘Jampotfuls of the jellied specks’
- ‘Wait and watch until’ - suggests anticipation
Suggests nature is rough
‘Fattening dots burst’
Reflects his love for nature as a child
‘Miss walls would tell us how’ - fact he remembers reflects how important these lessons were to him
Repetition of ‘and’ - reflects you guess of persona and reflects passion of persona
Signifies volta of poem
- ‘Then one hot day when the fields were rank’
- rank has unpleasant connotations
Focuses on disgusting aspects of nature
‘Fields were rank with cow dung in the grass’
Sound of frogs unsettles persona
- ‘Coarse croaking’
Highlights the sound of the frogs, reflects how it stood out to him as a possible sign of danger
Persona is intimidated by the frogs
‘The air was thick with a bass chorus’
‘Chorus’ suggests the frogs were in unison, makes them seem larger than life and outnumber the persona, making them feel intimidated
Makes the frogs seem hostile
‘Frogs were cocked’
‘Poised like mud grenades’
- seems like nature has set up the persona into an ambush
- presents nature as being an enemy from an ally
