Death of a Naturalist - analysis

Question 1

‘Death of a naturalist’

Answer 1

• metaphorical death of speaker’s innocence, forever lost
• figuratively speaking
• irony: poet recounts how he lost his innocent relationship with nature

Question 2

‘flax-dam festered in the heart’

Answer 2

‘flax-dam’ a plant with blue flowers. harvested in Ireland. famous
‘heart’ suggest it is a central place in the ‘townland’ + shows the importance of flax-dam to the speaker

Question 3

‘festered…..rotted’

Answer 3

uses semantic field to symbolise decay like his innocence

Question 4

‘punishing the sun’

Answer 4

• personification. appressive heat
• suggest summer is relentless + harsh

Question 5

‘bubbles gargled delicately…..best of all’

Answer 5

strange adverb to describe disgusting scene. shows speakers appreciation for the flax-dam and emphasises youthful fascination

Question 6

‘blue bottles’

Answer 6

sibilance creates a buzzing sound which recreates a slow, warm drowsy feel

Question 7

‘warm thick slobber….like clotted water’

Answer 7

• child like language. child tone emerging
• tactile language
• evocative

Question 8

‘I…. jampotfuls…jellied’

Answer 8

‘I’ - slipping into childhood self.
alliteration ‘j’ = stickiness

Question 9

‘wait and watch’

Answer 9

verbs suggests excitement and impatient

Question 10

‘Miss Walls would tell us how’

Answer 10

vivid memory suggest he is enthusiastic about the lesson regarding frogs

Question 11

‘daddy frog…. mammy frog’

Answer 11

innocent understanding of reproduction

Question 12

‘you could tell’

Answer 12

speaker learned facts about frogs

Question 13

‘For they were yellow in the sun and brown’

Answer 13

speaker learns facts about frogs

Question 14

‘In rain.’

Answer 14

short line making stanza end abruptly + signals turning point (volta)

Question 15

‘Then one hot day’

Answer 15

change in tone, views changed

Question 16

‘angry frogs’

Answer 16

adjective to describe frog suggest speaker aware of dangers

Question 17

‘Invaded’

Answer 17

‘invaded’, ‘cocked’, ‘grenades’ suggests war between speaker + frogs

Question 18

‘coarse croaking’

Answer 18

harsh/rough

Question 19

‘cocked’

Answer 19

military language. frogs =threatening
loaded gun ready to fire

Question 20

‘slap and pop’

Answer 20

onomatopoeia = standout /threatening
plosives

Question 21

‘poised like mud grenades’

Answer 21

artillery imagery
- simile suggests frogs about to explode showing how terrifying speaker found frogs

Question 22

‘I sickened, turned, and ran.’

Answer 22

direct contrast to his enthusiasm + passion in the beginning. metaphorically, now he’s lot his innocence + can see dangers in world

Question 23

‘great slime kings’

Answer 23

noun phrase. dominance. in charge
- frogs now in charge + rule flax-dam
‘great’ = all their power

Question 24

‘spawn would clutch it’

Answer 24

‘clutch’ = now afraid + scared of frogs. believes he won’t escape from knowledge of how he views the ‘angry frogs’. metaphorically of loss of innocence.

Gould: child’s tone. disgust, alarm, shock, fear of attack, child’s fear of nature