Death of a Naturalist

Question 1

Beginning quote 1

Answer 1

“Bubbles gargled delicately”

Shows the narrators fascination with the natural world and how innocent they are seeing everything as positive.

Question 2

Beginning quote 2

Answer 2

“But best of all was the warm thick slobber / Of frogspawn”

Shows the joy in discovery and curiosity. Whereas an older reader would be disgusted by the language here as we have learnt how gruesome ‘slobber’ is.

Question 3

Middle quote 1

Answer 3

” daddy frog” , “mammy frog”

This child-like language and first-person narrative demonstrates how the narrator is slipping into their childhood self.

Question 4

Middle quote 2

Answer 4

“fields were rank”

This stark change in language from stanza 1 to stanza 2 suggests that the narrator has grown up and has learnt to hate the things that once bought them joy.

Question 5

End quote 1

Answer 5

“I ducked through he hedges / To a coarse croaking”

The alliteration mimics the sounds of croaking that frogs make. This aging of the frogs mirrors the aging of the narrator.

Question 6

End quote 2

Answer 6

“The great slime kings / Were gathered there for vengeance”

Personification of the frogs suggests they have control over the narrator, he has learnt to fear the unknown rather than appreciate it.

Question 7

Semantic field in stanza 3

Answer 7

Semantic field of the military:

“Invaded”
“Poised like mud grenades”

Question 8

Who wrote Death of a Naturalist

Answer 8

Seamus Heaney

Question 9

Context of Death of a Naturalist.

Answer 9

• Heaney was an Irish poet who often wrote about childhood, nature and politics.

Question 10

Form of Death of a Naturalist?

Answer 10

It is written in blank verse making the poem sound conversational. The lack of rhyme scheme shows the unpredictability of life.