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Death of A Naturalist by Seamus Heaney The One With The Frogs
Death of A Naturalist by Seamus Heaney The One With The Frogs
The poem opens with some rich description of a swampy area where flax (a kind of plant) grows.
Heaney describes the flies buzzing, and how the sun beats down on the mucky soil. He pays
particular attention to the slimy frogspawn (what eventually becomes tadpoles, then frogs). This
sparks a memory for the speaker, and he begins to talk about how in school, his teacher had
students collect the gooey frogspawn in jars to watch it turn to tadpoles as part of a science
lesson about frogs.
Then we're snapped into the present. One hot, steamy and stinky day, the speaker follows the
sound of croaking frogs to its source. He sees more frogs than he's ever seen amongst the
frogspawn (no, this is not a scene from a horror movie). They're croaking and slapping in the flax
dam. Not surprisingly, he gets grossed out—so much so that he freaks out and runs away.
Key Quotes:
The title is metaphorical – the “death” symbolises the speaker’s loss of innocence as he
grows up.
The tone of the poem at the beginning 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 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.
Context:
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.
Structure:
In the first stanza, the speaker in the poem is full of enthusiasm and enjoys nature.
In the last stanza, this changes as he becomes more aware of the dangers.
The adverb ‘delicately’ is Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles ‘punishing’. This could
suggests that summer is
a strange word to use to Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
relentless and harsh.
describe this disgusting There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,
scene. This shows the
But best of all was the warm thick slobber The words ‘slobber’ and
speaker’s appreciation
for the flax-dam. ‘Best of
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water ‘Jampotfuls’ suggests that
all’ also emphasises the In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring the speaker in the poem is
fascination he has. I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied young.