Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney

Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney

1. He was born and raised in Northern Ireland, on a farm, and he often refers to nature in his poetry

   • 'mud grenades' the simile here conveys his horror and fear at them as he compares them to war machinery, as if they are ready to cause damage

2. He describes the disparity between childhood and adulthood

3. The first stanza is written in iambic pentameter, which links to his heartbeat as he is getting excited

4. There is a semantic field of nature e.g. 'butterflies', 'tadpoles', 'snails' and 'spring', at the end he seems threatened by the nature which links to the idea that nature has power over man

5. He was not a romantic poet but his work has romantic traits

6. There is a lack of structure in the first stanza, for example there are a few caesuras and enjambments, which links to a child rambling

7. 'jampotfuls of the jellied' the auditory alliteration creates a stiff sound, linking the consistency and the sound of the substance

8. In the first stanza he is fascinated by frogspawn as he would 'wait and watch', but in the second stanza he is disgusted by it as he says the frogs are 'grossed bellied'

9. The use of a frog is symbolic of him growing up, it starts off as frogspawn (weak and needs protection), then a tadpole (innocent and needs a bit less protection), and finally a frog (is a protector and isn't so innocent)