Death of a naturalist

Question 1

What is the title a metaphor for?

Answer 1

the loss of Heaney’s childhood innocence

Question 2

When was the poem published?

Answer 2

1939

Question 3

Context

Answer 3

Irish poet –> famous for writing about nature, especially farms
He grew up in a farming community
Follows in the footsteps of romantic poets
poem is a vivid memory from childhood

Question 4

What is the form and structure like in this poem?

Answer 4

Written in iambic pentameter
A lot of childhood imagery is used to convey the youth and innocence of the speaker: ‘Miss Wallis’, ‘mammy frog’, ‘daddy frog’
Poem is split into two halves

Question 5

What does the first half of the poem refer to?

Answer 5

refers to the speakers naïve youth

Question 6

What does the second half of the poem refer to?

Answer 6

his experience and knowledge

Question 7

Key quotations from the first part of the poem

Answer 7

‘All year the flax dam festered in the heart/Of the townland’, ‘rotted’, ‘punishing’
–> ominous tone is created
–> sense of nature at its most unforgiving, however instead of alarming the child he is captivated

‘best of all was the warm thick slobber of frogspawn’
–> conveys the child’s excitement by this superlative phrase

Question 8

Key quotations from the second part of the poem

Answer 8

‘angry frog/Invaded’
–> mood and atmosphere which was previously calm and relaxed has changed to hostile and threatening

‘poised like mud grenades’
–> comparison to warfare
–> revenge

‘I sickened, turned, and ran’
–> feel the child’s terror

Question 9

What could the poem be a metaphor for?

Answer 9

The poem could be seen as a metaphor for growing up
Use as a point in a conclusion