Death of a Naturalist Flashcards
What is the story of Death of a Naturalist?
as a young boy he was fascinated by the frogspawn, when he grew up he became horrified as the frogs grew up with him.
What is the context of Death of a Naturalist?
Seamus Heaney’s brother died in a car accident when he was young, the death affected him badly and lots of his poems are about loss of innocence.
What’s the message of Death of a Naturalist?
-Change can be difficult as we grow up
-Nature can be horribke
What’s the structure of Death of a Naturalist?
Divided into two sections
Stanza one reflecting childhood
Stanza two showing how the memory becomes a nightmare
“All year the flax-dam festered in the heart of the townland; green and heavy headed”
Dam rots and decays
“Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell”
innocent bubbles juxtaposed with bad smell.
“Here, every spring I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied”
speaker is fascinated with nature
Miss Walls would tell us how the daddy frog was called a bullfrog and how he croaked when he saw the mammy frog.
teacher doesn’t go into detail to protect innocence.
“I ducked through the hedges to a coarse croaking that i had not heard before”
unfamiliar situation, frogs have changed
“the slap and plop were obscene threats. some sat poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting. I sickened, turned and ran”
he no longer sees them as beautiful nature, he is repulsed.
