DOAN Flashcards
Rough plan
Opening - delving into memory
Middle - childhood memory
End - adult, changed view of nature
Opening quotes
‘Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun’
‘bluebottles/Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell’
Middle quotes
‘Here, every spring/I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied’
‘And how he croaked and how the mammy frog/ Laid hundreds of little eggs’
End quotes
‘Then one hot day when fields were rank’
‘Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting’
‘Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun’
- adult speaker narrating through advanced vocabulary of ‘sweltered’ and ‘festered’
- personification of sun ‘punishing’ subverts usual association of prosperity and joy, as it seems oppressive inflicting pain
- aggressive, overpowering punishing the earth
- adverb ‘daily’ informs us of relentless discomfort, overwhelming
- sibilance emphasises strong impact of heat
‘bluebottles/Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell’
- bluebottles are carron flies that feast on dead and decaying organisms, making nature seam uncomfortable
- presence of this symbol of death in the ‘flax-dam’, a place of vibrant life, shows complexity of nature
- synaesthesia seen as sound experienced through smell, makes experience immersive, an indication of transition into childhood recollection
- strong gauzze suggests all consuming, intrusive way of nature
‘Here, every spring/I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied’
- time phrase ‘every spring’ demonstrates continued fascination throughout childhood
- term ‘jampotfuls’ used instead of quantified amount indicating a child is speaking
- alliteration accentuates excitement and fascination
- enjambment demonstrates overwhelming sense of excitement and joy in recollection
- explored childhood blends curiosity with ignorance
‘And how he croaked and how the mammy frog/ Laid hundreds of little eggs’
- repeated use of the conjunction ‘and’ hints at youthful narrator
- Irish dialect of ‘mammy’ is indicative of Heaney spending his early years in rural NI
- speaker’s naivety through teacher explaining how frog reproduction works, sense of fascination
- repetition of ‘how’, repeating what he’s learned at school
- personification of frogs as if they are a human family to help speaker understand reproduction in age appropriate way
- a wonder in the fertility, subtle excess that becomes overwhelming (foreshadows)
‘Then one hot day when fields were rank’
- volta demonstrated through adverb ‘then’, suggesting speaker grown into adult speaker
- feels a sense of discomfort with nature through adjectives ‘hot’ and ‘rank’
- ‘rank’ connotes repulsive, foul smell
- also foreshadows usage of militaristic language to come
- although nature stays same, perceptions do not
- links to beginning
‘Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting’
- military reference to ‘grenades’ highlights how natural world has become opposing threat to humans, power and authority
- simile alludes to impulsive, explosive aspect of nature whilst showcasing its unpredictability
- appreciation of repulsive things changed now to repulsion
- zoomorphism suggests they have gone from harmless to grotesque
- farting is both gross and childish symbolising loss of innocence through fear and revulsion
Structure
Free verse - mimics natural speech helping it feel like a personal reflection/memory
Lack of structure reflects emotional unraveling as speaker loses childhood clarity
Enjambment - natural flow of memory
First stanza slower, second quicker showing panic and unease
Context
- spent early years in rural NI influencing to explore powerful forces of nature
- often read work in context of The Troubles which reflects a loss if innocence in society, exposed children to violence, loss, even recruited by military
- eldest of 9
Overview
Heaney uses ‘Death of a Naturalist’ as a vehicle to underscore how experiences of the natural world change with the inevitable passing of time, as individuals progress from childhood to adulthood. Heaney’s own upbringing in rural Ireland would have most likely informed his own writing as a contemporary poet.
