Compare Death of a Naturalist, Advancement of Learning and Roe Deer.

Death of a naturalist, Advancement of learning and Roe deer

Introduction

The assignment that I will be undertaking is based on the poems Death of a Naturalist, Advancement of Learning and Roe Deer. The Nobel Prize winning poet Seamus Heaney, who was Irish, wrote the two poems Death of a Naturalist and Advancement of Learning. Ted Hughes, who has written a variety of stories, one of which was the famous Iron Man, wrote the poem Roe Deer. The main task of the assignment is to

Explain the general meaning and storyline of each poem
Consider the feelings and emotions in each poem
Discuss the use of language in each poem

These three poems have a similar theme. They are all about nature, specific animals and how the poet sees them through his eyes. In the two poems by Seamus Heaney, the poems are about a change of opinion. In Death of a Naturalist, the poet at first thought frogs were entertaining and interesting however later found out they was atrociously disgusting. He was sickened by them. In Advancement of Learning, Heaney at first does not like rats, but later conquers his fears. In Roe Deer, Hughes finds deers fascinating in his own way. He begins to think he understands what they were saying to him, and then he gradually looses contact with them.

Death of a Naturalist is the poem told by Seamus Heaney as a child point of view. It is about his experience and encounters with frogs. He used to collect frogspawn as a boy but then became suddenly afraid of the frogs. Advancement of Learning is the poem told by the poet Seamus Heaney who is probably now older. The poem is regarding the incidents, which deal with the transition from childish innocence to an awareness of the fundamental threat implicit in all our lives. The poem is about a creature he despises, a rat, but when he really thinks about it, he sees what a pathetic little creature it really is and overcomes his repulsion. Roe Deer is the poem told by Ted Hughes as a man, who tells it in a sort of science fiction way. The poem is all about the possibility of experiences we cannot justify in the world we live in. He believes, as in science fiction, there is a kind of dimension for animals, they suddenly appear out of nowhere. They seem to look at him and try to tell him something but at the end, he looses contact. The deer’s try to justify something to him and when he is just about to understand, like a fortuneteller who loses contact with the spirits, he loses it.

Death of a naturalist

In stanza one the poet is enchanted and obsessed by the frogs, e.g. “warm thick slobber of frogspawn was best of all.” Every spring he filled jam jars full of frogspawn to see it develop into frogs. The teacher called them “Daddy frog” and “Mammy frog” which is likening them to a happy family. There is a bit of fantasy in this as if it is a children’s story, which shows the imagination of the poet when he was a child.

In stanza two, the picture changes completely. The boy begins to fear the frogs. He was listening to angry frogs invading or barging through the flax. He had not heard the coarse croaking before. This is a new experience, which begins to make him afraid. When he saw them, he was disgusted in some aspects e.g. “farting”. He also sees them as threats. He uses the words that create imagery of war to convey his fears e.g. “Poised like mud grenades”, he said, “ the great slime kings were gathered for vengeance”. How would a person feel if a group ...

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Advancement of learning

In stanza three something slobbered seeked his attention. The word “slobbered” makes the reader think of something disgusting a negative image. “Smudging the silence”, if you smudge something it ruins or dirties it. Again, Heaney is trying to give an emotion of disgust and disturbance. “Slimed” makes the reader think of something dirty e.g. slugs leaving a slime trail. Again, it is disgusting. “My throat sickened” shows he was disgusted. In stanza four, he mentions “cold sweat” which shows he is nervous. However he says “but god” which shows by the wording his revulsion and that he is afraid.

In stanza five a dreaded bridgehead, the dictionary defines bridgehead as a strong position secured by an army inside enemy territory. So Heaney feels he is in enemy territory, again adding to the fear. He turns to share with “deliberate thrilled care” which shows he is more relaxed and is able to look at the rat. However, what kind of thrilled is it? He mentions, “ panic” in stanza eight and how he used to feel afraid. In stanza nine, he mentions “terror” but by this time, he was being sarcastic. He looked at the rat, he conquered it and the rat retreated. He saw finally how small and pathetic it was and felt superior.

Roe deer

In stanza one, the word “alerted” makes the reader feel aware something is about to happen, building the tension as the poem goes. In stanza two, he describes the deer being there at just the same time he arrives which implies a kind of shock. In stanza three “vision of the abnormal” makes the reader feel something is not right making the reader wonder. “Secret deer hood” gives a mystical feeling. In stanza four, the word “stared” makes the reader realise, Hughes is anxious. In stanza five, the words “ the deer were waiting for me” gives the reader a sense of mystery and fear, “Password and signs” implies he has to enter a secret dimension. Hughes questions the reader for a couple of seconds and makes them think for a while about what he means. In stanza six, he enters the dimension his emotion is confusion. Stanza seven is clear terror “the deer had come for me”.

In all three poems, the emotions include anxiety, e.g. in Advancement of Learning Heaney says, “my throat sickened”. There are different aspects of fear in all three poems. In Advancement of Learning, the fear is great at the start, and then gradually fades because he actually understood what the rat was capable of. He had misunderstood the rat and now sees it as pathetic, perhaps he also feels sorry for it. In Death of a Naturalist, there is some disgust e.g., “gross bellied frogs” “heads farting”. There is also disgust in Advancement of Learning e.g. “slobbered”. In Roe Deer, the emotion is more mystical and makes the reader think e.g. “into my dimension”. It also creates imagery and some fear e.g., “the deer had come for me”. In advancement of Learning, Heaney has learned not to judge a book by its cover, as the saying goes. He also learned to conquer his fear of rats. In Roe Deer, Hughes feels as if there is another dimension and learned? Death of a Naturalist Heaney learned that frogs were not as friendly and fun as he thought they were e.g. “coarse croaking that I had never heard before”.

Imagery is used in all three poems but to emphasis something different. Imagery is used to create pictures in the readers mind giving a more clear understanding to the reader. There are different aspects of imagery used such as war images, sensory imagery, to create different vibes of emotion and pictures in the readers mind giving a more realistic vibe towards the reader. Linguistic devices are 100% likely to be used in all poems whether its similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia or alliteration, there will always be some in every poem. The poet uses these devices to create all kinds of effects such as similes, which gives a sense on what the writer is experiencing. All poets use these devices in there poems but in a different way.

In advancement of learning, Heaney uses images to contrast what he means. “The river nosed past, pliable oil skinned, wearing a transfer of gable sky’s”. In one way, this contrasts Heaney’s feelings and emotions. The river is polluted and is in a very bad state, which probably reflects Heaney’s feelings. In death of a naturalist, there is also water, but this water is full of life which might resembles someone’s happiness in a symbolic way. It mentions bluebottles; frogs, dragonflies etc so you can imagine it is a sunny pleasant-sounding day. In Roe Deer, there is no water but snow, “all way disintegration” the snow is going in all directions, which also in some aspects resembles his emotions as it also is going in all directions getting mixed with confusion. The poems also contain other images such as war imagery, sensory imagery and comic book imagery. The poets use it to give a more realistic effect. In Death of a Naturalist, Heaney uses war images to contemplate his feelings and thoughts e.g., “ the frogs invaded the flax dam” the boy feels as though the frogs have formed an army to fight back against the theft of frogspawn. By using war images Heaney gives a more clearly descriptive image what the boy is feeling and experiencing. If Heaney had not used war images, he would not have got the same effect. The war images in Death of a naturalist also draws a comparison to the poem Advancement of learning as it also uses war images to bring a sense of war to the poem. As man is able to “establish a dreaded bridgehead” and make nature “retreat”, which also is a result in which time it was written in. Roe Deer however has no war images, nevertheless has a stronger use of and need for imagery than the other two poems. This time nature is trying to get back at man. Hughes uses imagery here with the “curtain”, which is used to draw up the fine line that nature and Man has to pass to get back to each other. In order to get through this curtain, man has to find the “password and sign” for nature, and therefore the poem takes a new twist as Hughes takes the reader back in time to find this password and sign where nature and man were content on being symbiotic. “To remember this password and sign where the trees were no longer trees and the road no longer a road”. However, after nature realises mans arrogance to unite, the deer run off “and the snow took them back to the ordinary”. Hughes has used imagery to reconcile the two forms, to try and reform their spiritual correspondence and get it back to the times when man and nature were not trying to overpower each other, but were actually living in harmony with each other, but unfortunately this progress is not to be and things returned to normal. This is again another huge contrast to the other two poems, where the imagery is used to show nature victorious over man. In Advancement of learning Heaney has gone a step further and used imagery to conjure up words that do not actually exist, “slimed” and “clockworked”, to give extra effect to the poem.

In Death of a Naturalist Heaney uses a further imagery to portray the feelings and experiences of a child e.g. “ the great slime kings” this is a product of a Childs over reactive imagination like monsters and ghosts. This seems to come out of a nightmare or a comic strip reflecting the terror he felt at the time, thinking that the spawn might clutch his hand. The poet has thought through this carefully

In Death of a Naturalist, Heaney also uses sensory imagery to portray a more effective image. Sensory is an image that draws one of five senses of the reader. There are quiet a few sensory images used in this specific poem e.g. “Bubbles gargled this is used to bring out a sense of hearing and experiencing the same thing as the poet. It can also trigger memories, so it is a kind of déjà vu.

In Death of a Naturalist there are similes used to create effects e.g. “ poised like mud grenades” this creates a picture. A grenade is a small bomb round in shape, a bit like a frog and a similar colour, camouflage green. He uses grenades to make his point how he feels about the frogs. He is threatened. Thats why he chose grenades as an image instead of something like limes. This is a clear image, which probably was picked up because of the poet’s background in Northern Island, and this may have influenced him. Death of a Naturalist also contains onomatopoeia e.g. “slap and plop” this gives his writing more life and immediacy because it makes the reader feel as thou they are experiencing the incident and can hear the sounds the little boy is hearing. Advancement of Learning also has onomatopoeia e.g. “slobbered" which brings out the realism of the poem.

In Roe Deer, the poet has used alliteration to give a more affective effect. E.g. boil of big flakes” The b is repeated giving a poetic echo, which enhances the poem and brings it to life. It also draws a comparison to Advancement of Learning as it to also has alliteration. E.g. “The tapered tail that followed him” which gives the exact same effect with the t repeating to give an echo.

In Advancement of Learning there are a few metaphors used to create effect. Heaney uses metaphors to add to the repulsiveness of the poem, e.g. “on his knobbed skull”. In addition, the bridge could be a metaphor for his fear or rats, the rats usually inhabited the bridge, and therefore he “deferred the bridge”. However, as he triumphs over his fear of rats, he is able “to cross the bridge”. Heaney also uses metaphors in Death of a Naturalist “frogspawn that grew like clotted water” by using metaphors, Heaney gives life to the poem. The idea of metaphors is less used in Roe Deer. Nevertheless, the use of metaphors here is very strong, as nature was waiting for man to remember the “password” and “sign”, which is symbolic of man getting back to nature through the “curtain”.

The main contrasts and comparison about the three poems is the different sides of nature. In Death of a naturalist, the beginning is a simple, happy Childs image of frogs, but as you grow up you understand not everything is as simple as you expect it to be. In Advancement of Learning, it is the other way around; Heaney is older but not an adult yet. The poet fears rats at first and then understood they are pathetic. In Roe Deer, the poet is an adult who thinks he nearly unravelled the mystery of nature.

I personally prefer the poem by Ted Hughes, Roe Deer. The reason why I like it is because find the mystery of it exciting. I also like the way it is written; it is very cleverly thought out and written. I can feel truly, what the poet is trying to make me feel as if I was watching a movie.