Death of a Naturalist- Seamus Heaney Flashcards
What does the poem open with?
Rich description of a swampy area where flax (a kind of plant) grows, flies buzzing and how the sun beats down on the mucky soil
What does he pay particular attention?
Slimy frogspawn (what eventually becomes tadpoles, then frogs)
What does the sight of frogspawn do to Heaney and what does he talk about?
Sparks a memory and he talks about how in school, his teacher had students collect gooey frogspawn in jars to watch it turn into tadpoles
What does the speaker do on a hot, steamy and stinky day?
Follows sound of croaking frogs to its source
What does the speaker see?
More frogs than he’s ever seen amongst the frogspawn
What are the frogs doing and what happens to the speaker?
They’re croaking and slapping in the flax dam, the speaker gets grossed out and runs away
What happened Heaney’s 4 year old brother when he was younger?
Died in a car accident
What did the death of Heaney’s brother do to him?
Affected him badly and many of his poems are about loss of innocence
Where did Heaney grow up?
On a farm and many of his poem reflect his upbringing
What is the speaker like in the first stanza?
Full of enthusiasm and enjoys nature
How does the speaker change in the last stanza?
Becomes more aware of the dangers of the world around him
What are the possible themes and links to other poems?
Loss of innocence- Afternoons
Childhood memories- Excerpt from The Prelude
Passing of time- As Imperceptibly as Grief, Excerpt from The Prelude, To Autumn
What does the metaphorical title “death” symbolise?
Speaker’s loss of innocence as he grows up
What does the enthusiastic tone (“sweltered”, “festered” and “gargled”) at the start of the poem suggest?
Speaker is almost relishing the vile smells of the dam
What does the language “jampotfuls”, “fattening dots” and “mammy frog” suggest?
Childhood innocence
