Death of a Naturalist

Read the poem and then working on your own, or in a group, decide which of the contextual points relating to Heaney and his poem, Death of a Naturalist is most helpful to those wanting to reach a fuller appreciation of the poem. Drag the statements in the list below so that they are ranked from most to least useful.

Death of a Naturalist

All year the flax-dam festered in the heart
Of the townland; green and heavy headed
Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.
Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.
Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring
I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied
Specks to range on window-sills at home,
On shelves at school, and wait and watch until
The fattening dots burst into nimble-
Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how
The daddy frog was called a bullfrog
And how he croaked and how the mammy frog
Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was
Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too
For they were yellow in the sun and brown
In rain.

Then one hot day when fields were rank
With cowdung in the grass and angry frogs
Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges
To a coarse croaking that I had not heard
Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.
Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cocked
On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:
The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat
Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.
I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings
Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew
That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.


Seamus Heaney

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  • Seamus Heaney was born in 1939 and died in 2013.
  • Death of a Naturalist was first published in 1966, and gave its name to a collection of poems, which became a best seller, having won a lot of awards.
  • Seamus Heaney’s earlier poems tended to be about his childhood and family, although his work became increasingly political.
  • Heaney was a very proud Irishman. He was born in Northern Ireland, and, apart from some years living in America, spent most of his life there.
  • Heaney was the oldest of 9 children, and his father was a farmer.
  • Death of a Naturalist is based on Heaney’s childhood in rural Northern Ireland. Flax is a type of plant that can be found growing in Northern Ireland and can be used for spinning into yarn once soaked. A 'flax-dam' is where the flax was kept to rot and soften.
  • The setting of the poem in spring could be significant as symbolising a time of change.
  • Heaney’s poem could be described as the loss of childhood innocence, and is largely seen through the eyes of a small child. At a deeper level it could be interpreted as suggesting how our adult identities are formed.

Questions

Using the four most important points, write your own response to the questions below.

Top ranked points