Death of a Naturalist Essay

The title, Death of a natural scientist explains another part of the poem because it is literally about the little boy loving the warm midst slobber of frog sire. Then he grows older and loses some of the innocence that was present in the first stanzas. He is sickened by the gross(a) bellied frogs and the naturalist in him is dead. The theme of Death of a Naturalist is excessively the power of nature. This is illustrated by the frogs having power over the author as a child. This powerful theme is conveyed in the second stanza, with phrases interchangeable angry, threats and vengeance. The frogs ar described as being poised homogeneous mud grenades which brings out juts of guns and strength. The writer uses emotional images, because it is the poets memory and he is reminiscing. Heaney uses a number of poetical devices to create images. Firstly, he uses the metaphor in the heart of the town land to add interest to the poem. He uses language such as sweltered and punishing sun t o create an image of the hot summer that he remembered. The poet brings nature into the poem with the metaphor bluebottles wove a strong gauze of sound.This creates a visual image of the day he went to collect frogspawn in the readers mind and engages their interest. He uses alliteration in the line on shelves at school, and wait and watch, to make the tone calm and happy with promiscuous sounds. There is childish language like mammy used to convey an image of innocence in the first stanza. In the second stanza, the mood changes dramatically from one of nostalgia and innocence to vulgarity and almost horror, although at that place are hints to this tone in the preceding stanza. The poet uses speech like rotted, slobber, and festered as a hint that all is not well. In this stanza, the mood is dark, and vile, conveyed by language like rank, gross and vengeance.Heaney creates a tense image with the bass chorus of the frogs. He describes the frogs necks as pulsing like sails and thei r blunt heads farting to convey his terror that his once loved frogs would wreak vengeance on him. The frogs are described as slime kings, once again bringing out the dominance of nature. Heaney uses onomatopoeia in the words slap and pop to create an image in the readers mind. The poem concludes with the poet saying that the spawn would clutch his hand. This communicates his terror and reflects the poems central theme of the power of nature.