Death of a naturalist

• “Jampotfuls of the jellied specks” 


  A01- alliteration To emphasise passion

  A02- makes personas fascination and interests seem natural as jelly-like substances are commonly held in jam jars. Pluralisation of “jampotfuls” suggests the large amount of nature and the overflowing passion of the child

  A03- heaney grew up in rural Northern Ireland on his family’s farm
• “And how he croaked and how the mammy frog”


  A01- repitition of “and” mimics child’s speech

  A02- polysydenton list sounds like child but also implies the never ending (current) passion; knowledge spilling out of him; euphemism for fertilisation. “mammy” highlights youth and Irish upbringing and personas naivety is emphasised in “miss walls” as he takes her word as gossipal and puts total faith into her teaching

  A03- Irish poet born in 1939, grew up in northern ireland
• “I sickened, turned and ran”


  A01- rule Of three speeds up flow of the ending of poem

  A02- quick succession of verbs highlights the reaction of persona as he can’t believe the shift in nature, which he used to find friendly and comforting. Short sentence contrasts with rest of poem suggesting poet has lost all interest in nature and no longer wants to praise its beauty

  A03- heaney described his child hood as “an intimate, physical, creaturely existence”
• “Dragon-flies, spotted butterflies… frogspawn“


  A01- abundance of nature imagery

  A02- high image density of nature implies how nature is thriving and persona is fascinated by it. Compactness of imagery in so llines could imply the writer notices every aspect.

  A03- Heaney described his childhood as “an intimate, physical, creaturely existence”
• “Poised like mud grenades“


  A01- semantic field of war in 2nd stanza

  A02- references to war reflect how nature and man used to be allies but now after the traumatic experience he feels decieved and threatened by nature making them enemies

  A03- grew up in Northern Ireland in his family’s farm
• “Coarse croaking”


  A01- “coarse“ harsh adjective, inflicting sense of unease and change in tone

  A02- alliteration reflects how the sound of frogs stood out like the phrase does in the poem. Implies they writer felt intimidated by nature as the “angry frogs” no longer remained his peace but now cause him fear. A03- Heaney became father same year he published poem so could reflect his loss of adolescence since he is now a parent
• structure of death of a naturalist 


  2 stanzas to reflect the change from childhood to adolescence. enjambment to show opposition between man and nature
• Tone of death of a naturalist

  initially mood is one of fascination and passion but shifts to terror and panic