Compare and contrast blackberry picking and death of a naturalist both by Seamus Heaney

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Compare and Contrast Blackberry Picking and Death of a Naturalist both by Seamus Heaney.

The purpose of this assignment is to compare two poems Death of a Naturalist and Black Berry picking both by Seamus Heaney. I will look for similarities and differences between the two poems by looking at content, voice, structure, setting, theme, tone and imagery.

The content of the two poems are both similar as each are about life cycles, fascination and disappointment in nature. The general idea of each poem is Seamus Heaney as a child going out into the countryside collecting samples of nature, either blackberries or frogspawn and storing or displaying his findings until they grow up or rot. In Blackberry Picking Heaney also writes about how year after year he picks and stores blackberries when in the back of his mind he knows that they won’t last forever, or as long as he would like them to. Death of a Naturalist explores the idea of growing up and when he returns to the place he collected the frogspawn he feels threatened by adult frogs.

The voice is the poet as a child describing and recalling childhood memories and experiences Occasionally the voice of a child comes though as well to show his childish points of view and opinions, in Blackberry Picking Heaney says,

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‘It wasn’t fair…’

An adult would not say this. I like the way Seamus uses this technique because it helps you to believe that he is experiencing the moment as an immature child, instead of an adult looking back. Also, in Death of a Naturalist Heaney refers to the male or larger frog as a Daddy instead of a Father.

‘The Daddy frog…’

An adult would not say this or refer to the Father as a ‘Daddy’. This childish language again reinforces the point of view as being from a child.

In both poems the structures ...

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