Intro Template

Question 1

Opening line

Answer 1

‘Blackberry Pickings’, Death of a Naturalist and ‘Personal Helicon’ are all poems written by Irish poet Seamus Heaney in the 20th Century.
Heaney was a child raised against the backdrop of the troubles in Ireland - producing hardships and fear in his childhood years.
Heaney tackles ‘Q’ through very specific experiences in nature to illustrate the maturity and growing up and out of childhood perceptions.

Question 2

BP Summary

Answer 2

‘Blackberry Pickings’ focuses on the speaker picking fruit as a child and watching it ferment suggesting an awareness of mortality and the older perceptions of childhood.
By using a bipartite structure Heaney creates a sudden transition from life to death.

Question 3

DOAN Summary

Answer 3

‘Death of a Naturalist’ looks at a child’s perspective of nature, in particular frogs, compared to an adults - phasing the ideas of maturity and the fear within the adult world and its emerging sexuality.
Once again Seamus Heaney uses a bipartite structure to emphasises that sudden divide between childhood and adulthood.

Question 4

PH Summary

Answer 4

‘Personal Helicon’ follows a child’s passion of wells into adulthood and the replacement of this hobby with mature poetry.
Similarly to ‘Death of a Naturalist’, this poem looks at adulthood and the development of human situations from a childlike simplicity to an older and more pessimistic outlook.

Question 5

Ending Line

Answer 5

All 3 poems deeply explore ‘Q.’ through … which …