Death of a Naturalist - what is it about?

Question 1

how does death of a naturalist open?

Answer 1

some rich description of a swampy area where flax grows. Heaney describes the flies buzzing + how the sun beats down on the mucky soil. pays attention to the slimy frogspawn (eventually becomes tadpoles, then frogs)

Question 2

what does the imagery of frogspawn cause?

Answer 2

speaker to remember a memory. he begins to talk about how in school, his teacher had students collect gooey frogspawn in jars to watch it turn into tadpoles as part of a science lesson about frogs

Question 3

what happens after memory of frogspawn?

Answer 3

snap to the present. one hot, steamy and stinky day, speaker follows the sound of croaking frogs to its source. he sees more frogs than he’s ever seen amongst frogspawn. they’re croaking + slapping in the flax dam. he gets grossed out, freaks out + runs away