Coursework Compare ‘Blackberry-Picking’ and ‘Death of a Naturalist’ By Seamus Heaney.

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COMPARE ‘BLACKBERRY-PICKING’ AND ‘DEATH OF A NATURALIST’ By Seamus Heaney.

I am going to compare the poems, ‘Blackberry-Picking’ and ‘Death of a Naturalist’ to see whether they are similar. I will study the main themes of both poems and look for any similarities between them. I will also look at the way in which they have been written, analysing their layout, content and imagery to see if there is any consistency in the poems. By doing this I hope to be able to find out whether these two poems are similar or in fact totally different.

  The themes of the poems are similar because they are both about the innocence of childhood and the fact that when you are young everything is simple.

   ‘Blackberry-Picking’ is about the innocence of childhood and that this innocence and youthfulness doesn’t last forever. This is indicated by the lines in the last verse ‘we hoarded the berries in the byre. But when the bath was filled we found fur’. These lines are very descriptive because they are saying that the fresh berries don’t last and will eventually wrinkle and turn mouldy. This is true in life as well, because also young children are ‘fresh’ but in time they will lose their quality and begin to wrinkle until they are of no use to anyone. ‘The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.’ This is a very powerful line because it is saying that the smooth, sweet flesh would become unpalatable. This is true in life as well because when you are young your skin is smooth and perfect but as time passes it will shrivel and will lose the beauty it had initially. ‘ I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot. Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.’ This works very well at the end of the poem because it is showing that he felt it was ‘unfair’ that the freshness would not keep just like youthfulness would not. ‘It wasn’t fair that all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.’ This sentence is saying that the poet feels it isn’t fair that youthfulness has to turn rotten. Each year he hoped it would last but he knew that it would not because it is not possible. This poem is trying to convey the feeling that when you are young you do not think that things will change but as you get older and you begin to fade you realize that nothing lasts.

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   The ‘Death of a Naturalist’ is similar to the theme of ‘Blackberry-Picking’ because it is again talking about youth and its innocence however it is not about ageing. This poem is very moving because it deals with the changing feelings of someone as they turn from young innocence into adulthood where things are not so innocent. This is visible at the end of the first verse when he says, ‘Miss Walls would tell us how The daddy frog was called the bullfrog And how he croaked and how the mammy frog laid hundreds of little eggs and this was ...

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