Death of a Naturalist - Context Flashcards
1
Q
who wrote this poem?
A
seamus heaney
2
Q
when was this poem published?
A
1966
3
Q
seamus heaney
A
- irish poet, born 1939, died 2013
- massively acclaimed - won the nobel prize in literature in 1995
- teacher, lecturer, poet
4
Q
where did seamus heaney grow up?
A
- in rural northern ireland on his family’s farm
5
Q
how was heaney’s childhood?
A
- he described it as ‘an intimate, physical, creaturely existence…in suspension between the archaic and the modern’
6
Q
what important family events took place in heaney’s life?
A
- younger brother died in 1953, aged 4
- heaney became a father for the first time in 1966, the same year his book ‘death of a naturalist’, which contained the poem with the same name, was published
7
Q
what is the poem about?
A
- the narrator remembers how they used to collect frogspawn from a flax dam
- they were enthusiastic about nature and the sticky frogspawn. however, after the narrator grew up, they found the frogs disgusting
- the shift in the narrator’s perception of nature highlights the way the people’s views change as they grow up
8
Q
what themes are present in the poem?
A
- passage of time
- change and transformation
- negative emotions
- nature
