Death of a Naturalist

"Death of a Naturalist" by Seamus Heaney

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.
⁵ 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
¹⁰ 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-
¹⁵ 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
²⁰ For they were yellow in the sun and brown
In rain.
Then one hot day when fields were rank
With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs
Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges
²⁵ 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
³⁰ 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.

I thought it would be interesting to begin with the title poem of Heaney’s first poetry publication. In this poem, Heaney takes a simple, earthy subject of nature and adds an ominous twist to it. The title itself sets the tone, which is then built up by the vivid imagery and seemingly mundane observations, which eventually coalesce to gruesomely foretell the predicted death. Reading this poem, I was drawn in by the descriptive language of setting, which is strong enough to inspire a sense of repulsion in the reader of the graphically described frogspawn and nightmarish surroundings.

Literary devices:

1. Image: Heaney uses vivid image throughout the poem to convey a sense of foreboding mood. "Sweltered in the punishing sun" (4), "the warm thick slobber / Of frogspawn" (8-9), and "clotted water / In the shade of the banks" (9-10) are all violently unpleasant and vaguely threatening images. This choice of scenes to portray marks the tone of the poem, distinguishing it from a typical appreciation of nature and giving it a darker, uglier undertone.

2. Onomatopoeia: The use of onomatopoeia, such as in "gargled" (5), "slap" (29), and "pop" (29), serves to place the reader directly in the setting. Their unappealing connotations reinforce the pervading repugnant mood.

3. Personification: The speaker attaches human intentions and emotions to animal subjects in the poem, saying "The great slime kings / Were gathered there for vengeance" (31-32). By giving the frogs human characteristics, he makes them capable of evil, reinforcing the speaker's perception of nature as sinister and malevolent.