Death of a naturalist

Question 1

Title

Answer 1

Death of a Naturalist’ – metaphorical – refers to the death of someone’s passion / interest in nature - could be seen as the loss of innocence or the loss of childhood ideas.

Question 2

stanza 1 -1

Answer 2

‘Festered’ / ‘rotted’ – connotes death and decay - foreshadowing the metaphorical death of the naturalist as seen in title.

Question 3

stanza 1 - 2

Answer 3

Oxymoron ‘gargled delicately’, shows that the youthful persona finds pleasure in the sounds of nature no matter how disgusting it may be
‘Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.’ Combined imagery of sound, touch & smell. Sibilance mimics sound of flies buzzing.
Abundance of nature imagery – ‘bluebottles’ / ‘dragonflies, spotted butterflies’ / ‘frogspawn’ - suggests that nature fascinates the persona because its alive and thriving

Question 4

stanza 1 - 3

Answer 4

Alliteration – ‘jampotfuls of the jellied specs’ – emphasizes its stickiness
Pluralisation of ‘jampotfuls’ suggests a large quantity. Use of a made-up word shows the persona’s childish nature

Question 5

stanza 1 - 4

Answer 5

Repetition of ‘and’ - shows the personas enthusiasm and passion for nature as they are unable to stop talking about it – conveys the persona’s youth.
‘In rain’ - the abrupt ending of the line and stanza foreshadow the sudden metaphorical death of his passion/interest in nature.

Question 6

stanza 2 - 1

Answer 6

‘hot’ / ‘fields’ / ‘grass’ - nature has not changed – only persona’s opinion of nature has changed.
Alliteration ‘course croaking’ - reflects how the sound of the frogs made the persona feel unsettled nervous or intimidated – mimics croaking.
the ‘bass chorus’ - makes the air thick or impenetrable - the persona is now intimidated by the very thing they found comfort in reflecting the change in mood

Question 7

stanza 2 - 2

Answer 7

Frogs were cocked’ / ‘pulsed like sails’ / ‘Poised like mud grenades’ - semantic field of war – shows how nature and man have gone from allies to enemies – reinforces the change in mood
simile - ‘poised like mud grenades,’ – suggests frogs are about to explode – military reference creates a threatening atmosphere. Narrators’ innocence is lost – see nature as dark and harmful.

Question 8

stanza 2 - 3

Answer 8

Rule of three – ‘I sickened, turned, and ran’ – short, quick succession of verbs highlights that the persona is horrified and fearful – contrasts with the rest of the poem which is long and descriptive - suggests that the persona now has no interest nature - they just want to get out of there.

Question 9

stanzas

Answer 9

1-1-festered/rotted
1-2-gargled delicately, strong gauze sound smell, nature imagery
1-3-jampotfuls of the jellied specs
1-4-and and , in rain
2-1-hot/fields/grass , coarse croaking, bass chorus
2-2- Frogs cocked / pulsed sails / Poised mud grenades
2-3- sickened, turned, and ran