death of a naturalist Flashcards
what are the themes of death of a naturalist?
power, nature, love, time, man and death
“gargled delicately,”
Verb and adverb – exploring how nature was a thing of wonder and discovery.
“frogspawn that grew like clotted water”
Simile – excitement of watching the tadpoles grow and expand and come to life.
“wait and watch until/The fattening dots”
Alliteration – anticipation of the fattening of the tadpoles.
“were rank”
Adjective – negativity towards the smell and appearance of nature.
“loose necks pulsed like sails”
Simile – repulsion at the appearance of the toads and frogs which have now grown up similar to the now grown up man, who once revelled in the joy of discovering nature but is threatened by the sight as a man.
“Poised like mud grenades,”
Simile – negative exploration of the way the frogs move and the negative colour of them implying he doesn’t like frogs and is threatened by them.
what is a death of a naturalist about?
The opening stanza focuses on the persona’s memory of collecting frog spawn as a child from a flax dam. It fascinated him and he writes about his childhood wonderment at the “warm slick slobber” and how he filled jam jars with it, took it home and took it to school where his teacher taught the class about frogs. In the second stanza the tone changes, and the persona describes how “one hot day” the dam was invaded by angry frogs whose croaking filled the air. This frightened and sickened him so much that he ran away in fear.
