SUMMARY-DEATH OF A NATURALIST
“Death of a Naturalist” is concerned with growing up and loss of
innocence. The poet vividly describes a childhood experience that
precipitates a change in the boy from the receptive and protected
innocence of childhood to the fear and uncertainty of adolescence.
Heaney organises his poem in two sections, corresponding to the change in the boy. By showing that this change is linked with education and learning, Heaney is concerned with the inevitability of the progression from innocence to experience, concerned with the transformation from the unquestioning child to the reflective adult.
The poem opens with an evocation of a summer landscape which has the immediacy of an actual childhood experience. There is also a sense of exploration in “in the heart/Of the townland;” which is consistent with the idea of learning and exploration inevitably leading to discovery and the troubled awareness of experience. To achieve this Heaney not only recreates the atmosphere of the flax-dam with accuracy and authenticity, but the diction is carefully chosen to create the effect of childlike innocence and naivety. The child’s natural speaking voice comes across in line 8; “But best of all”. The vividness of his description is achieved through Heaney’s use of images loaded with words that lengthen the vowels and have a certain weightiness in their consonants;
“green and heavy-headed Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.”
The sound of the insects which, “Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell” is conveyed by the ‘s’ and ‘z’ sounds but also, importantly, acts like a bandage preventing the spread of decay. The images of decay, “festered”, “rotted”, “sweltered” and “the punishing sun” do not seem to trouble the boy in this first section (although they do prepare us for the second section and the loss of innocence); he takes a delight in the sensuousness of the natural world. The onomatopoeic “slobber” effectively conveys the boy’s relish for the tangible world around him. We can further see how he views this world by the words “clotted” and “jellied”; to the boy the frogspawn is like cream and jam, something to be touched and enjoyed.
In section two everything changes. This change is marked by differences in tone, diction, imagery, movement and sound. The world is now a threatening place, full of ugliness and menace. However, it is not the world that has changed so much as the boy’s perception of it. There is still a strong emphasis on decay and putrefaction, but now it is not balanced by images suggesting the profusion of life. The sounds are no longer delicate (line 5), but are “coarse”, “bass” and “farting”. “The slap and plop were obscene threats.” The onomatopoeic “slap” and “plop” slow down the pace here and the full stop gives emphasis to the feeling of threat. The "warm thick slobber/Of frogspawn" has become "The great slime kings" and the transformation is further suggested by the threatening image of the frog as "mud grenades".
So what has brought about this change? It coincides with the boy's learning about tadpoles at school. The teachers use the frogs to introduce a series of facts from sexuality to the weather, in a controlled and painless way. However, the boy is now learning deeper and darker facts about life and his previous sense of mystery and innocent wonderment is replaced by an almost patronising simplifying of the natural world:- “the daddy frog” and "the mammy frog". In spite of the simplicity of this labeling, it does expose the boy to the fact that life is about flux and transformation. His previous unconcerned collection of the frogspawn now fills him with a sense of guilt. Simultaneously occurring
with a growing awareness of his own self (and the awareness of personal responsibility that this brings) is an increasing realisation that life is not always what it seems. As a child he had simply collected the frogspawn, now he begins to reflect on the meaning and consequences of his actions. He feels he will be punished for what he has done, "The great slime kings/Were gathered there for vengeance." He has become aware not only of his own individual existence, but also of that of other living things. Although not explicitly stated, the words "bass", “gross-bellied” and “coarse croaking” remind us that the boy himself is going through changes. Leaving behind the receptive innocence of childhood and a feeling of being at ease with the natural world (the death of a naturalist of the title), the language of the second section expresses the boy's sense of distaste and fear for the physicality and sexuality of adolescence that he is now beginning to experience.
The poem recreates and examines the moment of the child's confrontation with the fact that life is not what it seems. The experience transforms the boy's perception of the world. No longer is it a place for unquestioning sensuous delight. It is a dynamic world of uncertainty. The success of the poem derives from the effective way Heaney builds up a totally convincing account of a childhood experience that deals with the excitement, pain and confusion of growing up.
Heaney organises his poem in two sections, corresponding to the change in the boy. By showing that this change is linked with education and learning, Heaney is concerned with the inevitability of the progression from innocence to experience, concerned with the transformation from the unquestioning child to the reflective adult.
The poem opens with an evocation of a summer landscape which has the immediacy of an actual childhood experience. There is also a sense of exploration in “in the heart/Of the townland;” which is consistent with the idea of learning and exploration inevitably leading to discovery and the troubled awareness of experience. To achieve this Heaney not only recreates the atmosphere of the flax-dam with accuracy and authenticity, but the diction is carefully chosen to create the effect of childlike innocence and naivety. The child’s natural speaking voice comes across in line 8; “But best of all”. The vividness of his description is achieved through Heaney’s use of images loaded with words that lengthen the vowels and have a certain weightiness in their consonants;
“green and heavy-headed Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.”
The sound of the insects which, “Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell” is conveyed by the ‘s’ and ‘z’ sounds but also, importantly, acts like a bandage preventing the spread of decay. The images of decay, “festered”, “rotted”, “sweltered” and “the punishing sun” do not seem to trouble the boy in this first section (although they do prepare us for the second section and the loss of innocence); he takes a delight in the sensuousness of the natural world. The onomatopoeic “slobber” effectively conveys the boy’s relish for the tangible world around him. We can further see how he views this world by the words “clotted” and “jellied”; to the boy the frogspawn is like cream and jam, something to be touched and enjoyed.
In section two everything changes. This change is marked by differences in tone, diction, imagery, movement and sound. The world is now a threatening place, full of ugliness and menace. However, it is not the world that has changed so much as the boy’s perception of it. There is still a strong emphasis on decay and putrefaction, but now it is not balanced by images suggesting the profusion of life. The sounds are no longer delicate (line 5), but are “coarse”, “bass” and “farting”. “The slap and plop were obscene threats.” The onomatopoeic “slap” and “plop” slow down the pace here and the full stop gives emphasis to the feeling of threat. The "warm thick slobber/Of frogspawn" has become "The great slime kings" and the transformation is further suggested by the threatening image of the frog as "mud grenades".
So what has brought about this change? It coincides with the boy's learning about tadpoles at school. The teachers use the frogs to introduce a series of facts from sexuality to the weather, in a controlled and painless way. However, the boy is now learning deeper and darker facts about life and his previous sense of mystery and innocent wonderment is replaced by an almost patronising simplifying of the natural world:- “the daddy frog” and "the mammy frog". In spite of the simplicity of this labeling, it does expose the boy to the fact that life is about flux and transformation. His previous unconcerned collection of the frogspawn now fills him with a sense of guilt. Simultaneously occurring
with a growing awareness of his own self (and the awareness of personal responsibility that this brings) is an increasing realisation that life is not always what it seems. As a child he had simply collected the frogspawn, now he begins to reflect on the meaning and consequences of his actions. He feels he will be punished for what he has done, "The great slime kings/Were gathered there for vengeance." He has become aware not only of his own individual existence, but also of that of other living things. Although not explicitly stated, the words "bass", “gross-bellied” and “coarse croaking” remind us that the boy himself is going through changes. Leaving behind the receptive innocence of childhood and a feeling of being at ease with the natural world (the death of a naturalist of the title), the language of the second section expresses the boy's sense of distaste and fear for the physicality and sexuality of adolescence that he is now beginning to experience.
The poem recreates and examines the moment of the child's confrontation with the fact that life is not what it seems. The experience transforms the boy's perception of the world. No longer is it a place for unquestioning sensuous delight. It is a dynamic world of uncertainty. The success of the poem derives from the effective way Heaney builds up a totally convincing account of a childhood experience that deals with the excitement, pain and confusion of growing up.
Comments
Post a Comment