Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney Seamus
Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney is widely recognized as one of the major poets of the 20 th century. A native of Northern Ireland, Heaney was raised in County Derry, and later lived for many years in Dublin. He was the author of over 20 volumes of poetry, and edited several widely used anthologies. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past. " Heaney taught at Harvard University (1985 -2006) and served as the Oxford Professor of Poetry (1989 -1994). He died in 2013.
Heaney’s unsettling “Death of a Naturalist” tells the story of a bad experience that transformed the speaker’s childhood fascination with nature into fear and awe. The “Naturalist” refers not to an actual scientific expert, but simply an inquisitive child. The death referred to is metaphorical; the loss of innocent enthusiasm in response to half-understood realities. The idea of collecting and observing natural things including frogspawn is almost universal in childhood. The poem conveys the fact that harsh realities, including sexuality, must, at some point, invade a child’s consciousness.
The poem contains two verses or STANZAS. Stanza 1 is concerned with the young child’s fascination with nature. The poet describes, in great detail, what he saw and how he loved to get close and examine the frogspawn carefully. How can we tell he is young?
Death of a Naturalist By Seamus Heaney WE WILL READ THROUGH THE POEM TWICE
All the 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 jampots full of the jellied Specks to range on the 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.
In stanza 2 the poet is older and has lost his fascination with nature and is repulsed and terrified of the huge frogs How can we tell he is older now?
Then one hot day when fields were rank With cowdung in the grass the 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.
DEATH THE TITLE Not an actual death but • the end of innocence • The end of childhood interests and pursuits as we mature THE NATURALIST A naturalist is an expert in or student of natural history. In the poem he is referring to the young boy who enjoys exploring nature and getting very close to sounds and smells he finds.
CONTEXT OF THE POEM • Seamus Heaney’s four year old brother died in a car accident when Heaney was a young boy. • The death affected him badly and many of his poems are about loss of innocence. • Heaney grew up on a farm and many of his poems reflect his upbringing.
There is a contrast in tone between the two stanzas TONE • The tone of the poem in the first stanza is almost enthusiastic – the verbs “sweltered”, “festered” and “gargled” suggest the speaker is almost relishing the vile smells of the dam. • Language such as “jampotfuls”, “fattening dots” and “mammy frog” suggest childhood innocence. • The tone changes (turning point) on “ Then one hot day” and the tone becomes more aware of the dangers – “angry frogs”. • Final words – “spawn would clutch it” shows the contrast with when he would collect the “jellied specks” – he has grown up and no longer wants to play the games of his childhood.
STRUCTURE • The poem is divided into two stanzas of 21 and 12 lines respectively. The break or volta, where the child loses innocence and becomes aware that life is not so simple, comes at the beginning of line 22, with ‘Then’. • There is no regular rhyme scheme or metre, but instead Heaney uses enjambment, varied sentence length and varying pace to convey the nuances of the story. He also uses internal rhyme, as in lines five and six (stanza two) where ‘bass’ and ‘gross’ are consonantly rhymed. • These devices give the poem unity and cohesion.
LANGUAGE There a wide selection of techniques used within this poem: • • Word choice Imagery Extended metaphor Enjambment Volta Onomatopoeia Alliteration
Read through the poem and highlight as many examples of each TECHNIQUE as you can
LANGUAGE Word Choice What did you find?
LANGUAGE WORD Word Choice USUALLY MEANS IN THIS CONTEXT Festered • decayed/ offensive • Often associated with wounds /pus • It suggests the flax was decomposing creating unpleasant smells Rotted • Decomposed /decayed • Emphasizes the unpleasant process as above thick slobber • Dense saliva • A viscous substance • Describes the oozy substance, filled with frogspawn, that he loved to collect Daddy/ mummy • A childish name for parents • Using this childish language he highlights that this is a small child’s point of view Rank • Offensive and revolting smell • (military symbolism) • A more mature/aware opinion of what he once thought of as gloriously smelly – he now finds it disgusting. vengeance • Revenge or retribution • He fears the frogs are seeking revenge for his innocent collection of their young
LANGUAGE Imagery What did you find?
LANGUAGE-IMAGERY IMAGE LITERAL ROOT IN THIS CONTEXT grew like clotted water • A CLOT is a thick mass of coagulated liquid • Using the image we get the sense of what a gloriously disgusting find this fascinated naturalist has made. pulsed like sails • A SAIL is found on a boat to • He uses this image to describe how the frogs catch the wind. When it does it necks distend/bulge, hugely. fills and puffs out. Poised like mud grenades • A GRENADE is an explosive device that has a delay • The frogs are sitting still (poised), waiting. The persona believes they will explode in an attack any minute; creating fear. • GAUZE is a delicate yet strong • Bluebottles are common flies. Their buzzing bluebottles fabric mingles with the smell of the flax to create an Wove a strong impression of strength and intensity, like a gauze of sound haze around the flax dam around the • The mix of sound and smell and texture is an smell example of synaesthesia. Rank, • invaded, cocked, • grenades kings Extended metaphor military symbolism Compares the adult frogs to a threatening presence • By using this military imagery, the poet highlights for us how the older child has lost all fascination with the natural world and instead fears the retribution of the frogs whose tadpoles he took.
LANGUAGE Enjambment What did you find?
LANGUAGE Enjambment What did you find? 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. There is a lot going on in this section of the poem. We can sense the child’s voice talking to us directly – not through the eyes of the adult who has written the poem. How does he do that?
LANGUAGE Enjambment What did you find? 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. Firstly, there is the language choices that we have already discussed, but there is also the sound and construction of these lines. They seem to run in to one another crossing over the lines. THIS IS ENJAMBMENT
LANGUAGE Enjambment What did you find? 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. THIS IS ENJAMBMENT When we read these lines we can hear the young boy’s enthusiasm and excitement with regard to the frogspawn. His teacher is giving a lesson in Biology – life cycles and new birth– and he loves it.
LANGUAGE Enjambment What did you find? 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. Note also, his childlike dialect could be reflective of the naivety and innocence Heaney still possesses at this point in the poem. He is still inquisitive and curious at this stage, a budding naturalist. However, in the final stanza of the poem his language matures, possibly due to the traumatising experience that he has will the bullfrogs that takes away that childlike innocence, and replaces his curiosity with fear, hence the ‘Death of a Naturalist’
LANGUAGE Enjambment What did you find? 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. One last point about this section: the last line This is the shortest line in the poem. What’s the significance?
LANGUAGE Enjambment What did you find? 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. One last point about this section: the last line This is the shortest line in the poem. What’s the significance? It creates a stop – an end to the youthful innocence.
LANGUAGE Volta What did you find?
LANGUAGE Volta What did you find? Then one hot day This is the turning point where we become aware of change. From now, we are hearing from an someone less innocent/more aware – a much more cynical person - who has a healthy respect (and fear) of the natural world.
LANGUAGE Onomatopoeia What did you find?
onomatopoeia LANGUAGE WORD USUALLY MEANS IN THIS CONTEXT slobber • Not fully onomatopoeic but you can imagine clearly the sloppy sound it would make • To a small boy this substance would be delightfully disgusting Croaked croaking • The sound of frog • This word is repeated: in verse one it is simply demonstrating the noise of the frog • In verse two it is paired with ‘coarse’ which is a harsher, more threatening sound. slap • Harsh contact usually made in anger or with aggression • Refers to the sound of the frogs hitting the water and emphasizes their size as their bodies make contact plop • Usually associated with something heavy hitting water and sinking • Again emphasizes the size of the frogs and how fearful they are
LANGUAGE Alliteration What did you find?
ALLITERATION/ASSONANCE LANGUAGE EXAMPLE Effect Flax-dam Festered • Highlights the decay by creating emphasis on the word ‘festered’ a strong gauze of sound around the smell • SIBILANCE: repeated ‘s’ sound – mimicking the buzzing of the flies Coarse croaking • The hard ‘k’ sound highlights the frogs savage appearance to the adult speaker sound around heavy headed flax-dam… heart punishing sun • ASSONANCE • Slow lazy sounds reminding us of long hot summer days
Stanza One In the first stanza Heaney makes such extensive use of alliteration and assonance that the language almost feels heavy and sticky, to emulate a hot summer’s day on the farm. The process of rotting the flax took time, and this is suggested by how the poet has drawn out the vowels, for example in the long ‘e’ sounds of ‘green and heavy headed’ His use of enjambment also contribute to this slow moving style. There is a sense of him sitting and watching as events unfold, as illustrated in line thirteen.
Stanza 2 The change of tone occurs abruptly with the word ‘Then’. After the languorous language (dreamy, lazy) of the first stanza this verse begins with a harsh monosyllabic line: ‘Then one hot day when fields were rank/with cowdung’. Both ‘rank’ and ‘dung’ sound cacophonous with harsh consonance. The words ‘coarse croaking’ sound abrasive and unpleasant, and they form a ‘bass chorus’. Again the proliferation of ‘o’ sounds combined with the harsh ‘c’ show that this is eerie and grating on the child’s nerves. He continues to use language that a child would find entertaining, and it reads in part almost like a cartoon with the onomatopoeic ‘slap’ and ‘plop’, except here they are juxtaposed beside the words ‘obscene threat’. This should be a spectacle to a child, but is instead frightening because of the number of toads and their perceived indignation at human intrusion.
Theme The Natural World Loss of Innocence EXPLANATION The poem is based in the world of nature as highlighted in the title. It focuses around the lifecycle of frogs to discuss nature and a child’s fascination and growing knowledge of the world around him. Through the eyes of a child we sense his intrigue and excitement as he sees nature up-close and watches as tadpoles become frogs. As the young child becomes aware of the significance of frogspawn in the lifecycle of the frog and reproduction he loses his innocent enjoyment of the sticky substance. This colours his view of the natural world
EVIDENCE Theme The Natural World Loss of Innocence • • flax-dam festered , bluebottles Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell dragon-flies, spotted butterflies warm thick slobber/Of frogspawn The fattening dots burst into nimble-/Swimming tadpoles mammy frog/Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was/Frogspawn. gross-bellied frogs • • • The daddy frog was called a bullfrog And how he croaked and how the mammy frog Laid hundreds of little eggs Then one hot day coarse croaking that I had not heard/Before gross-bellied frogs obscene threats I sickened, turned, and ran vengeance
The title of "Death of a Naturalist" gives it away: nature is going to be a big part of this poem. Heaney includes many natural description (albeit, sometimes unsavoury natural description), and centres the whole poem around the reproduction of frogs. The speaker has a conflicted relationship with nature. At first he's excited by the change of the season when spring comes along, bringing with it the familiar frogspawn that's so much fun to scoop up in jam jars and watch transform. The event at the end of the poem, however, changes his opinion. He encounters the reality of the frogs' reproduction, and is not only thoroughly disgusted by it, but frightened, too.
Questions About Man and the Natural World: 1. As a reader, what is the effect of the more disgusting descriptions of nature in this poem? 2. Do you think Heaney wants the reader to be turned off by nature, or do you think he just wants to paint a realistic picture of it (good and bad)? 3. What was the most vivid description involving nature in the poem for you? How many (of the five) senses were engaged in the description? 4. Do you think the speaker's bad experience with the frogs at the end of the poem has turned him away from nature entirely? Why or why not?
The speaker in "Death of a Naturalist" is at the age where he Is filled with childlike wonderment, but he's starting to learn how the world works. This can be a shocking and exciting time. On the one hand, he is excited about spring coming because he gets to collect the gooey, nasty, but undeniably fun, frogspawn and watch it change on his windowsill. Plus, he gets to learn about how the whole process works at school. From a distance this is all good, but that one hot day, when he learns the reality of frogspawn, things aren't so simple. He feels disgusted by the reality of reproduction. He also feels oddly guilty that in collecting the frogspawn he may have disturbed the natural balance, so the big bullfrogs might feel vengeful toward him. Our speaker is no longer carefree and innocent. He knows more, he's experienced more, and he's finding out that the world is a complex and sometimes uncomfortable place.
Questions About Innocence 1. What do lines 16– 18 ("The daddy frog was called the bullfrog / And how he croaked and how the mammy frog / Laid hundreds of little eggs …") tell you about the speaker's innocence? 2. What about the speaker's curiosity and enthusiasm for the frogspawn (especially in the first half of the poem) makes him seem more innocent? 3. Does his teacher or his schooling do anything, in your opinion, to affect the speaker's innocence? What parts of the poem support your answer? 4. At the end of the poem, the speaker seems to have become aware of what the frogspawn is, where it comes from, and to whom it belongs. What about this newfound awareness affects his innocence?
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