Death+of+a+Naturalist

   **Death of a Naturalist - Seamus Heaney Page Updated By: Ayush K. Biyani **


 * __The Poem:__**

All year the flax-dam festered in the heart Of the townland; green and heavy headed Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods. Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun. Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell. There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies, But best of all was the warm thick slobber Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied Specks to range on window-sills at home, On shelves at school, and wait and watch until The fattening dots burst into nimble- Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how The daddy frog was called a bullfrog And how he croaked and how the mammy frog Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too For they were yellow in the sun and brown In rain.

Then one hot day when fields were rank With cowdung in the grass and angry frogs Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges To a coarse croaking that I had not heard Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus. Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cocked On sods; their loose necks pulsed like snails. Some hopped: The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting. I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew

That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.


 * __Context:__ **

“Death of a Naturalist” is the second poem in Seamus Heaney’s anthology by the same name.


 * //The main idea://**  Persona's change in attitude towards nature as he grows up. Seems to be an adult reflecting on a childhood experience.


 * //The setting of the poem://** Probably rural because the poet spent his entire childhood in the Irish countryside.

The structure of the poem evidently shows the contrast between a child’s persona and an adult’s viewpoint.

The title is important to understand, as ‘the death of a naturalist’ is not the physical death of a person but the death or the end of a feeling, an emotion. It is the death of the nature-loving facet to the p ersona’s personality. (Could be seen as hyperbolic in nature.) //**
 * //The Title:

 **Setting to show the idea of growing up: ** 
 * Initially setting is unpleasant: use of frictatives 'flax' and 'festered', as well as the heavey 'h' alliteration (heavy haded) emphasises the rot and decay.
 * The idea of oppression conveyed through the 'sweltering heat' and 'weighed down'- slow lethargic pace. Personification of the sun through the adjective 'punishing'.  What is the effect?
 * Yet there is a sense of child's optimism (amuses self in repulsive surroundings). Persona’s observations such as “bubbles gargled delicately” (discuss the used and effect of the oxymoron) a nd the “dragonflies, spotted butterflies” show hints of beauty amidst the horrid landscape.
 * Contrast with the setting and the persona's attitude to it in the second stanza (you will need to elaborate on this)
 * use of synaesthesia- <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">effect?

**Portrayal of childhood****:** > > > ** Fear: **
 * “But best of all was the warm thick slobber”, here the “best of all” depicts through childish language the child like persona of the poet and the “warm thick slobber” expresses how the child likes the slimy surroundings.
 * Miss Walls - topic of procreation (need to explain it further)
 * Childlike language and serious topic (comic effect) (need to explain it further meaning unclear)
 * Words such as ‘daddy frog’ and ‘mammy frog’ are juvenile terms that reflect a child’s style of speech.
 * The caesura in last line of the first stanza, ‘In rain’ lucidly marks the end of a particular time period and foreshadows movement into another time. Carefree attitude of the child metamorphosing into an all knowing and experienced one.
 * The transition between two times is demarcated by the “Then”.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">The use of 'jampot' and 'jellied' - how does this show the the persona is describing a childhood memory?
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Explain the simile to describe the frog spawn
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> War imagery is used to show a rather naive mindset of the persona, who is not quite an adult as yet. Words such as ‘invaded’, ‘ducked through the hedges’, ‘mud grenades’ and ‘vengeance’ shows a child-like exaggeration of a situation.
 * Endlessly observes jam jars- childlike fascination.
 * Farting
 * Same experience being recollected by the adolescent or adult persona.
 * The difference in the perspectives is revealed through the change in language. evidence?
 * Words such as ‘invaded’, ‘ducked through the hedges’, ‘mud grenades’ and ‘vengeance’ show the uncertainty with which the adolescent views the world.
 * The fear and lacking familiarity is evident through the defensive actions of the persona as he ‘ducked through the hedges’ to protect himself.
 * The guttural ‘g’ sounds and the dental ‘d’ (evidence?) What is the atmosphere that is created?
 * Vulgarity in the description of the frods (find evidence)
 * Effect created by the use of onomatopoeia
 * The ‘coarse croaking’ and the ‘thick with bass chorus’ are cacophonous sounds used to stress on the unpleasantness of the surroundings and the persona’s discontent.
 * The poet uses a triad ‘I sickened, turned and ran’ to heighten the amount of disgust and fear sprouting in the adolescents mind because he fears that the frogs have returned to avenge his stealing of frogspawn.
 * In reality, the world itself has not changed much, it is the perception of the poet that has changed over time.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">The final lines of the poetry once again allude to the child’s persona where a nightmare is being described. In this nightmare, the frogs are ‘clutching’ onto the boy, reversing the original roles in childhood.

//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> The structure of the poem is in two parts – 1) A young nature-loving boy describing his experience with frogs. 2) An adolescent (older) boy recollecting an unpleasant experience from his past. <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"> <span style="font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: normal;">  //
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; font-style: normal;">__The Structure:__ **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: normal;">1) A link can be established between this poem and Heaney’s ‘Blackberry picking’ as both the poems convey an enjoyable childhood experience in the beginning and how this experience is sourly recollected with passing time. The disillusionment following pleasure is a common theme to both poems. The structure too remains the same, as the first stanza in both poems is more or less double in size as compared to the second.
 * __Cross Reference:__**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: normal;">

2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">‘Digging’, ‘Death of a Naturalist’ and ‘Blackberry Picking’ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',helvetica,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">: **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> In these poems Heaney paints vivid, sensuous descriptions of his childhood memories of rural, Irish life. His language is often onomatopoeic as he describes the “squelch and slap of soggy peat”, the “bubbles [that] gargled delicately” in the flax-dam, the “coarse croaking” of fat frogs, and the “big dark blobs” of blackberries

3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">‘Death of a Naturalist’, ‘Blackberry Picking’, ‘Mossbawn: Two Poems in Dedication’: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',helvetica,sans-serif;">//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: normal;"> In these poems Heaney does what he promised he would in ‘Digging’. He paints vivid, sensuous, descriptive pictures of rural Irish life and traditions. Through his poetry he hopes he will keep these dying traditions alive; although the blackberries “would turn sour”, in his poem the “sweet flesh” is forever preserved.   <span style="font-family: Tahoma,helvetica,sans-serif;"> //

Listen to Heaney reading the poem: __[|http://www.diacenter.org/prg/poetry/87_88/heaney1.html]__