After the change of tone, the sentence starts with ‘but’, which shows a negative sentence is coming and there is alliterative ‘f’ sounds, which represent anger and frustration. ‘But when the bath was filled, we found a fur.’ The rest of the poem has a lot of ‘f’ sounds, as it is all disappointment. ‘The juice was stinking too’ sounds like a child, but this is followed by ‘The fruit fermented’ which sounds adult. The last section of the poem switches from childish talk, to adult several times. ‘It wasn’t fair,’ suggests a child’s tone. The world is not how he wants it to be. The last line shows how he has learned that blackberries do not last. ‘Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not’. The ‘hope’ suggests childish anticipation. The ‘knew’ suggests adult acknowledgement. Heaney does not like to see things end; however the child is forced to face up to reality.
‘Death of a Naturalist’ is the title poem from anthology. This poem is also about a natural childhood experience, like ‘Blackberry Picking’, as it is about collecting frogspawn. The title is ironic as the poem is not about a naturalist, but a young Heaney observing nature. Again, like in ‘Blackberry Picking’ there is no particular structure, but it contains enjambment, and includes a change of tone towards the end, like most Seamus Heaney poems. The first line, ‘All year the flax-dam festered in the heart’, contains alliterative ‘f’ sounds which sets the scene as it makes the scene sound humid and hot. The alliteration of the ‘h’ sound in the first few lines, as in ‘heavy headed’, makes the poem sound full. The first few lines are heavy and full, which is also helped by an oxymoron, ‘clotted water’, however, when Heaney is talking about ‘The fattening dots burst into nimble Swimming tadpoles’, the ‘o’ sound makes it sound innocent. This innocence and child like language is used throughout the poem, especially when it seems the child is quoting his teacher when he says, ‘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.’ This portrays a child’s excitement.
The change of tone is marked by the word ‘Then’, as this tells us there is a negative change. A child’s innocence is portrayed, when the little tadpoles turn into ‘angry frogs’. The sounds are a contrast of those in the first section, in that they have become loud and angry. It is a first time experience, ‘I ducked through hedges To a coarse croaking that I had not heard Before’, which is amusing to the reader as it violates a child’s innocence. The frogs were placed randomly, ‘gross-bellied frogs were cocked On sods’, and the word ‘cocked’ makes them seem arrogant and fierce towards a young child. Child-like onomatopoeia is used to describe the frogs, ‘The slap and plop were obscene threats’. Heaney’s use of imagery makes the frogs sound like soldiers in a war, ‘Some sat Poised like mud grenades’. The last line, ‘and I knew That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.’, shows us the child is no longer excited about nature, as he is no longer calling it frogspawn. He is forced to believe tadpoles do not stay nimble.
‘Death of a Naturalist’ is very similar to ‘Blackberry Picking’ in that it has the same structure (a column of writing with a change of tone towards the end), and they are both on nature and coming to terms with the fact that this is the way nature is. Both these poems are natural childhood disappointments, as they are things many children experience when they are young.
D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Discord in Childhood’ is like ‘Blackberry Picking’ and ‘Death of a Naturalist’ in some ways, in that they are both about disappointments and childhood experiences. The difference is that ‘Discord in Childhood’ contains trauma a child does not normally experience. This shows D.H. Lawrence’s childhood was more dramatic and traumatic than Seamus Heaney’s. ‘Discord in Childhood’ is about a child sitting inside his house, listening to an abusive argument between his parents. It contains (as with ‘Blackberry Picking’ and ‘Death of a Naturalist’) enjambment; however there is rhyme, which was not present in Seamus Heaney’s poems. Pathetic fallacy is used in the first verse to mirror emotions and feelings inside the house, ‘Outside the house an ash-tree hung its terrible whips…the lash of the tree Shrieked and slashed the wind’, this also contains alliterative ‘s’ sounds, to make it sound sinister. It contains overdramatic metaphors such as ‘terrible whips’ and onomatopoeia within the pathetic fallacy, ‘the lash of a tree’. The first verse describes the weather and outside of the house, which reflects what is happening inside, but in the second verse a description is given of what is happening inside the house, as it starts with ‘Within the house’. The description is wild and ‘a slender lash Whistling she-delirious rage,’ makes the screaming sound hysterical. The last line of the poem is shocking, ‘The other voice in a silence of blood, ’neath the noise of the ash’ as is implies D.H. Lawrence’s mother is bleeding so much she is unconscious. The poem is effective and has a bigger impact, as you only manage to get a small glimpse of what is happening. Also, the fact that the child does not get involved, shows this is not the first time he has seen this abusive behaviour, but that it is a regular occurrence.
On the contrary, ‘Piano’ by D.H. Lawrence, is not violent. It is also looking back at his childhood; however this, unlike ‘Discord in Childhood’ describes a childhood experience, which is innocent. Its title, ‘Piano’, is simple and does not give any indications of childhood memories. It is set at dusk (‘Softly, in the dusk’), a peaceful, quiet and reflective time. A young Lawrence hears a woman singing, which sparks off his memory and takes him ‘back down the vista of years’. Similarly to Heaney’s poetry, Lawrence uses juxtapositioning in his work in ‘the boom of the tingling strings’. This is also an example of onomatopoeia, which Lawrence uses a lot. The image of a child ‘pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings’ is very innocent, and despite this being a happy memory, it upsets him, as he misses his mother. He tries to keep control of his emotion, ‘In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong,’ complete control of the song hurts him, and as he reminisces more it does more damage to his heart, because he misses his mother. This poem, like ‘Discord in Childhood’, also describes an evening at home, however it is very different, ‘the heart of me weeps to belong To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside And the hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.’ The word ‘our’ makes it sound as though there was no one but him and his mother. ‘The great black piano appassionato’, makes the piano sound dominant, which emphasises how small the child is. The last line of the poem is when Lawrence breaks down into tears, ‘my manhood is cast Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.’ He feels like a child, weak.
In conclusion, Heaney’s childhood was more like any other child’s, and his poetry reflects this. He had to come to terms with life, just as any child would, as in ‘Blackberry Picking’ where Heaney had to accept that blackberries do not last for a long time and in ‘Death of a Naturalist’ where he had to come to terms with tadpoles not staying nimble for ever. He grew up on a farm so a lot of his writing is about nature, like ‘Blackberry Picking’ and ‘Death of a Naturalist’. D.H. Lawrence, on the other hand, had a very contrasting childhood compared to Heaney. The fact that his parents argued a lot when he was in his youth meant that he grew protective of his mother, so ‘Piano’ was written about her. ‘Discord in Childhood’ is different, in that it showed a different perspective of his life. It describes the abuse in a destructive manner, and the language used makes the poem effective.
