death of a naturalist

• festered in the heart
• 'rotted' 'sweltered' 'gargled'
• but best of all
• every spring
• 'mammy' 'daddy'
• i would fill jampots full of frogspawn
• the gap between the stanzas is a volta, from joy to immediate horror
• then one day when fields were rank
• angry frogs
• anthromorphorism- human emotions in animals
• to a coarse croaking that i had not heard before
• i sickened, turned and ran
• context- Seamus heaney wrote about the troubles in ireland
• war echos 'invaded' 'ducked' 'grenades'
• compare to 'to autumn by john keates'

  • themes of nature, time passing, both admire nature in the beginning.
  • death of a naturalist hates nature as time passes
  • to autumn appreciates it even more