His fathers strength and power are also very effectively brought out in the simply, but effective simile, ‘His shoulders globed like a full sail strung between the shafts and the furrow.’ The comparison here suggests a man who spends much of his time out of doors, a man who is part of nature. The word ‘globed’ also suggests great strength and gives the impression that the father was the whole world to the young boy. It is important to note that his father is not simply strong; his tender love and care for his son are emphasised by the fact that he ‘rode me on his back dipping and rising to his pod’. The sound and rhythm of these lines covey the pleasure young Heaney had in the ride.
The words ‘yapping’ make us think of the boy as being like a young and excited puppy – enjoying playing at ploughing, but of no practical help. In fact, he was a hindrance to a busy farmer, but his father tolerates him.
The poem has several developed metaphors, such as the child following in his father’s footsteps and wanting to be like him. The father is sturdy while the child falls – his feet is not big enough for him to be steady on the uneven land.
In the closing lines of the poem shifts again, this time the “I” voice of the poet is now an adult. He wanted to grow up to plough fields, like his father, but he grew up and discovered his own passion and vocation. And now that he is a man, the relationship he has with his father is changed, ‘But today it is my father who keeps stumbling behind me, and will not go away.’
The use of a new sentence beginning with the capital ‘B’ emphasises the importance of this statement. Just as the boy once tripped and fell in his father’s wake, now, that he has grown up, it is his father who “stumbles” behind him. The roles have been reversed between the two men and now it is the father who follows his son. By the end of the poem we are left with the image of the stumbling of old age in sharp contrast with the stumbling of childhood.
Even though the word ‘love’ is never used in the poem, it is obviously the word that best describes the basis of the relationship existing between Heaney and his father. The poem is very much a personal experience, but it has a much wider significance relating to any kind of hero –worship by a ‘follower’. Now that he is himself an adult. Heaney acknowledges that the father he hero-worshipped as a young boy has grown old and needs as much tolerance and patience as he himself once showed his son.
Death of a naturalist
This poem is a fertile mixture of imagery, sounds and an impression created by nature on a person's mind. Heaney an outstanding feel of the physical wonders of nature. 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. As he wanders along the pathways of salient discovery, Heaney's imagination bursts into life.
The poems title is amusingly ironic - by a naturalist, we would normally mean someone with expert scientific knowledge of living things and ecology.
Death of naturalist has emotional images, because it is the poet’s memory and he is reminiscing. Heaney uses a number of poetic 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 ‘swelters’ and ‘punishing sun’ to create an image of the hot summer that he remembered. The poet brings nature into the poem with the metaphor ‘blue bottles’. 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 soft sounds. There is childish language like ‘mammy’ used to convey an image of innocent.
In the second 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 frog’s necks as ‘pulsing like sails’ and ‘their 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 ‘slop’ and ‘pop’ to create an image in the readers mind. This section appears like a punishment from offended nature for the boy's arrogance - when he sees what nature in the raw is really like, he is terrified. This part of the poem is ambiguous - we see the horror of the plague of frogs, “obscene” and “gathered...for vengeance”, as it appeared to the young boy. But we can also see the scene more objectively - as it really was. The young Heaney was used to seeing nature close up but perhaps never got beyond the very simple account of ‘mammy and daddy’ frogs.
The arrival of the frogs is like a military invasion - they are “angry” and invade the dam; the boy ducks “through hedges” to hide from the enemy. Like firearms, they are “cocked”, or they are “poised like mud grenades”
The theme of ‘Death of a naturalist’ is also 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 like ‘angry’, ‘threats’ and ‘vengeance’. The frogs are described as being ‘poised like mud grenades’ which brings out images of guns and strength.
Another central theme is childhood and growing up. The poet is describing his happy attitude towards nature, saying the frogspawn was ‘best of all’. The teacher, Mrs Walls uses childish language, such as ‘daddy’ and ‘mammy’. The poet uses this language to convey his innocence at that age. In the second stanza, it is obvious by the change of tone and language, such as ‘gross’, ‘slime; and ‘angry’, that the child is perhaps moving into adolescence and has become less oblivious and innocent to the world around him. The naturalist in him is dead.
"Fattening dots burst" shows growth and reproduction. Heaney's school teacher, Ms Walls, is hiding the reality of reproduction from the young children as they are not yet ready to accept the reality of the situation. He is disgusted at the thought of reproduction because he sees things through the surrealistic eyes of a child because of the stage he is at. He isn't ready to accept sex. He can't rationalise. Puberty makes him feel guilty. In the end he runs away, "I sickened, turned and ran", which shows that he has not fully grown up.
In this poem, Heaney uses terms we do not expect to see in poetry, and presents nature as the very opposite of beautiful. Heaney shows how children are very ingenuous and naïve and see the world as being very pure and wholesome just as it is in their imagination. He also shows that there is a transformation from childhood to adult hood.
