death of a naturalist

Question 1

author

Answer 1

seamus heaney

Question 2

structure

Answer 2

• blank verse

- lots of enjambment - storytelling

Question 3

context

Answer 3

biographical - draws on his own childhood

Question 4

paragraph 1

Answer 4

• nature is grotesque, yet adored, admirable, revered by the speaker
• ‘best of all was the warm thick slobber’ vs ‘dragonflies’ and ‘spotted butterflies’ - juxtaposing imagery, beautiful creatures vs repulsive frogspawn, rejects typical beauty of nature
• ‘slobber’ - fricative ‘b’ sound, thick sound
• ‘clotted’ blood clots, violent, disgusting imagery paired with superlative ‘best’, once again ignores it
• speaker is too young to be repulsed, overcome with naive wonder

Question 5

paragraph 2

Answer 5

• fascination becomes fear, portrayed as powerful and intimidating
• speaker is a ‘naturalist’, loses that title and status in ‘death’
• ‘invaded’ - army, threatening, militant language shows growth and maturity as he reminisces
• onomatopoeic verbs ‘slap’ and ‘pop’ - fricative ‘p’ sounds, amplify ‘obscene threat’ - repulsive adjective
• ‘sickened, turned, and ran’ - pace increases, urgency, fear, terror, intensity felt by reader
• able to achieve this through his own experiences (context)