Death of a Naturalist (Seamus Heaney)

Question 1

CONTEXT (AO3)

Answer 1

written by Seamus Heaney
- grew up on a rural farm in Ireland
- familiar with nature
purpose
- the poem presents the transformation of an inquisitive child into a adult who over time lost a sense of childhood innocence and naivety.
- this transformation serves as a metaphor for the transition from the innocent and unthreatening world of childhood to the disturbing, threatening world of adolescence.

Question 2

STRUCTURE

Answer 2

• irregular stanzas
• free verse (no rhythm or rhyme)
• enjambment

the poet’s use of enjambment along with the lack of rhythm and rhyme creates a sense of fluidity within the poem, mimicking the ongoing nature of time as the speaker grows up.

Question 3

FORM

Question 4

‘All year the flax-dam festered in the heart

Of the townland; green and heavy headed’

Answer 4

‘flax -dam festered’ + ‘green and heavy headed’ - ELONGATED VOWELS - creates an ominous undertone (foreshadowing the loss of innocence as one grows up)

‘flax -dam festered’ + ‘heavy headed’ - ALLITERATION - emphasises the slow and deliberate pace

Question 5

‘Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.

Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles’

Answer 5

‘punishing sun’ - PERSONIFICATION + PATHETIC FALLACY - ominous undertones hinting at the shock and horror the child experiences at the end of the poem

‘gargled delicately’ - OXYMORONIC - as a child Heaney finds beauty within nature’s coarseness

Question 6

‘Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragonflies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber’


Answer 6

‘sound around the smell’ - SYNAESTHESIA - combination of many senses - creates a very vivid image for the reader and emphasises the child’s initial admiration of nature

‘sound’ + ‘smell’ + ‘spotted’ + ‘slobber’ - SIBLIANCE - creates a noticeable hissing sound mimicking the deceptiveness of nature (as it is portrayed near the end)

Question 7

‘The fattening dots burst’

Answer 7

‘burst’ - PLOSIVE ‘b’ sound - threatening and dangerous

Question 8

‘daddy frog’

‘mammy frog’

Answer 8

‘daddy’ + ‘mammy’ - INFANTILE (childish) LANGUAGE - sense of naivety and youth about the speaker

Question 9

‘Then one hot day when the fields were rank’

Answer 9

‘Then’ - VOLTA - sudden change in tone as the speaker had grown up and lost their innocence

‘rank’ - ADJECTIVES - creates a mood of unpleasantness, restlessness (the speaker has matured and no longer admires/seeks beauty in the fields, instead he is realistic)

Question 10

‘Invaded the flax-dam;’

Answer 10

‘Invaded’ - WAR-LIKE IMAGERY - conveying aggression

Question 11

‘To a coarse croaking that I had not heard

Before.’

Answer 11

‘coarse croaking’ - CONSONANCE + ONOMATOPOEIC - alliteration and onomatopoeia is threatening

Question 12

‘The air was thick with a bass chorus.’

Answer 12

‘bass’ - HOMOPHONE - low pitched/unrefined/crude

Question 13

‘dam gross bellied frogs were cocked.’

Answer 13

‘cocked’ - WAR-LIKE IMAGERY - (like a gun) - again it paints the picture that the frogs are threatening and vengeful

Question 14

‘The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat

Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.’

Answer 14

‘slap and plop’ - ONOMATOPOEIA

‘blunt’ - LANGUAGE OF DISGUST - presents the contrast between the fascination with tadpoles as a kid and now the disgust with the frogs as an adult

‘.’ - SHORTER PHRASES - quickens the pace of the extract - mimics the speaker growing up and also presents the writers disgust/desperation

Question 15

‘would clutch it.’

Answer 15

‘clutch’ - CYCLICAL STRUCTURE - links back to a clingy, clutching child