Death of a Naturalist

Question 1

What is Heaney described as?

Answer 1

‘The most important Irish poet since Yeats’

Question 2

Where was Heaney born?

Answer 2

Tamniaran - northern Ireland

Question 3

What was Heaney surrounded by a lot of?

Answer 3

Nature

Question 4

Who, close to Heaney, was killed and when?

Answer 4

His brother Christopher was killed in 1953/1954.

Question 5

When was Death of a Naturalist written?

Answer 5

1966.

Question 6

What was happening in Ireland during the time it was written and how does the poem show this?

Answer 6

The ‘troubles’ which split Irish society, hence the 2 distinctive stanzas - one full of innocence, one full of violence.

Question 7

Which 2 ‘lost worlds’ does the poem reflect?

Answer 7

The narrator’s lost world of innocence but also a lost world of Irish life and identity.

Question 8

Heaney became a leader for a new kind of romantic poetry which included what?

Answer 8

Poetry in which nature/the natural world are used to describe emotion and phsychology.

Question 9

What 3 poems are good to compare Death of a Naturalist with?

Answer 9

-To Autumn/Hawk Roosting
-The Prelude/Afternoons
-Dulce/Mametz Wood

Question 10

Give 4 features of the poem’s form and their effect:

Answer 10

It’s written in first person and blank verse which makes it sound personal and conversational. Iambic pentameter is not always secure with it often over-spilling 11 syllables, perhaps reflecting the richness of nature and unpredictability of change. Enjambment conveys the narrators enthusiasm as well as nature’s inability to be constrained.

Question 11

‘All year the ____ -____ ____ in the ____ of the ____;’

Answer 11

‘All year the flax-dam festered in the heart of the townland;’

Question 12

‘Flax had ____ there.’

Answer 12

‘Flax had rotted there.’

Question 13

‘Daily it ________ in the ________ sun.’

Answer 13

‘Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.’

Question 14

‘Bubbles _______ delicately’

Answer 14

‘Bubbles gargled delicately’

Question 15

‘___________ wove a ____ gauze of ____’

Answer 15

‘bluebottles wove a strong gauze of sound’

Question 16

‘There were ______-_____, _______ ___________,’

Answer 16

‘There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,’

Question 17

‘But ____ of ____ was the ____ ______ _______ of _______ that grew like _______ _____’

Answer 17

‘But best of all was the warm thick slobber of frogspawn that grew like clotted water’

Question 18

‘Here, ______ ____ I would fill _________ of the ______ specks to ____ on _____-_____ at _____, on shelves at _____,’

Answer 18

‘Here, every spring I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied specks to range on window-sills at home, on shelves at school,’

Question 19

‘and ____ and _____ until the _________ dots _____ into _____-swimming tadpoles.’

Answer 19

‘and wait and watch until the fattening dots burst into nimble-swimming tadpoles.’

Question 20

‘____ Walls would tell us how the _____ ____ was called a bullfrog ___ how he _______ ___ how the ______ _____ laid hundreds of little eggs ___ this was called frogspawn.’

Answer 20

‘Miss Walls would tell us how the daddy frog was called a bullfrog and how he croaked and how the mammy frog laid hundreds of little eggs and this was called frogspawn.’

Question 21

‘For they were ______ in the ____ and ____
In _____.’

Answer 21

‘For they were yellow in the sun and brown
In rain.’

Question 22

‘Then one ___ day when fields were ____ with _______ in the grass and _____ _____ _______ the flax-dam;’

Answer 22

‘Then one hot day when fields were rank with cowdung in the grass and angry frogs invaded the flax-dam;’

Question 23

‘I _______ through hedges’

Answer 23

‘I ducked through hedges’

Question 24

‘To a _____ ________ that I had not _____ ______.’

Answer 24

‘To a coarse croaking that I had not heard before.’

Question 25

‘The air was ______ with a bass ______.’

Answer 25

‘The air was thick with a bass chorus.’

Question 26

‘_____-_______ frogs were ____ on sods; their loose necks ______ ____ _____.’

Answer 26

‘gross-bellied frogs were cocked on sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails.’

Question 27

‘The slap and ____ were _______ _______.’

Answer 27

‘The slap and plop were obscene threats.’

Question 28

‘Some sat ______ ___ ____ ________, their _____ heads _______.’

Answer 28

‘Some sat poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.’

Question 29

‘I ________, turned and ___.’

Answer 29

‘I sickened, turned and ran.’

Question 30

‘The _____ _____ _____ were gathered there for _________’

Answer 30

‘The great slime kings were gathered there for vengeance’

Question 31

‘I knew that if I dipped my ____ the _____ ____ _____ __.’

Answer 31

‘I knew that if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.’