Again in the second verse Heany remarkably gets across the senses. He brings into play the use of alliteration by using a hard ‘c’ sound to effectively mimic the sound of the frogs, ‘coarse croaking’. Smell is put across to the reader as it tells you the field smelt bad, ‘rank with ‘cowdung’. I think that in verse two the speaker’s mood and personality has changed. I think he feels threatened and in fear, ‘angry frogs’, ‘invaded’. He senses danger and irrational negativity. It is almost creates a vulgar atmosphere ‘blunt heads farting’. The tempo is also increased as there are little full stops, this helps produce a tense atmosphere.
Heany structures the poem to show a change in mood and character, to contrast a distinct change. In the first verse a theme of innocence is portrayed while in verse two the harsh reality of our world is got across.
Obviously the theme is nature but nature can be ugly, sordid and dark. I think the poem is all about change and that everything in the world isn’t all good. When we are young and innocent we see everything as it comes to us, we have no worries and are carefree but as we get older and more mature we start to see a whole different picture. We experience lies, deceit, spite and hate and this is the sorry thing about our day of living.
In Heany’s ‘Blackberry Picking’ the speaker tells the reader about the time he goes out blackberry picking in late August, so beautiful and warming. In the first verse he really describes the lust and desire for picking I feel he describes the blackberries effectively and it makes an immediate impact on the reader’s thoughts and feelings. He conveys them as being somewhat shiny and visually appealing, ‘glossy purple clot’. He uses motivating words to get across his feelings towards the reader, ‘lust’. Again Heany’s exploits the senses but only this time he uses all five of them. He exercises taste well in the poem to portray that the blackberries were delicious: ‘its flesh was sweet like thickened wine’. They almost have a drug like affect on him as they are addictive. He makes use of onomatopoeic words in the poem, ‘tinkling’. The use of touch is conveyed and gets across that the blackberries were sticky: ‘our palms sticky as bluebeard’s’, this is also a simile and is used efficiently.
In the second verse it is the opposite, everything turns bad for the speaker as seen in the language, tone and the way in which he describes the blackberries. Sight is used exceptionally well, ‘a rat grey fungus’. This depicts an ugly and unwelcoming image in the reader’s mind. Again it seems foul and vulgar as the language is sharp, ‘glutting’. He brings into play the sense of smell effectively, ‘smelt of rot’. This illustrates a picture of sadness for the speaker. The poem ends on a very unhappy beat: ‘each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not’.
In ‘Blackberry Picking’ the poem has a half rhyme and a few rhyming couplets, ‘clot’ and ‘knot’ , ‘rot’ and ‘not’. Similar to ‘Death of a Naturalist’ this poem has two verses and the main theme is nature and Heany’s fixation with it. Also a common feature just as ‘Death of a Naturalist’ , it all starts of beautifully with the blackberry picking and everything is fine but then all of a sudden it all turns sour and disappointing end as they begin to rot. This somewhat of a childish nature and the enthusiasm for picking the blackberries but later on in the second verse he matures and wises.
Wordsworth poems are a different style from Heany’s poems but they both share the same adoration and communion with nature.
In Wordsworth’s ‘The World Is Too Much with Us’ it is written in sonnet form – two verses composed of an octave and a sestet. Again, the theme of nature reoccurs but he refers to it in a more positive way. It is man who destroys nature: he criticises him for it as we can see from the first two lines he thinks that man wastes his talents, ‘we lay waste our powers’. I would agree with him as all you have to do is put on the news for five minutes and you will see what he means, the world is now such a corrupt place. He feels that man is more caught up with material good s and possessions and is not appreciative of natures values, ‘the world is too much with us’. It starts of with an angry tone as he is enraged by mans actions but then become calmer. He uses language effectively to create a clam flowing effect, ‘This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon’. He even gives ‘Sea’ a capital letter to create personification of a woman, beautiful and sensual. He makes nature a powerful and destructive force, ‘winds will be howling at all hours’. He generates a visual image that the wind is waiting to spring at any time, ‘like sleeping flowers’.
In the second verse there is a change in mood, the writer is even angrier with man, ‘Great God!’. He says he would rather be a pagan, I think he says this because pagans see God through nature and I feel he would want everyone to be a pagan because maybe man would be more appreciative of nature. Wordsworth cleverly brings in classical mythology into the equation, again this refers to his faith and pagans as the have gods of the seas, ‘Proteus rising from the sea’. There is something mystical and majestic about the sea.
Another of Wordsworth’s famous poems is ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ , the mood of this poem is set in the first two lines as he uses the title in the first line. This gives me the impression that he is lonesome and is far away from people, it is also a very good simile too as it gives me the notion that he is drifting further and further away from people just like a cloud. He cleverly and skilfully places the word ‘crowd’ and the end of line three to make you think he is talking about a crowd of people but as the reader reads on he will in fact find that he is talking about a crowd of daffodils. In the poem the main theme is the daffodils. He describes them excellently in the poem almost as if they were as good as gold. They are extravagant and majestic plants, ‘a host of golden daffodils’. He personifies them as moving gracefully, ‘fluttering in the breeze’. He makes them out to be alive and energetic, ‘sprightly dance’. Wordsworth gives us an indication of just how many of them there is, ‘continuous as stars that shine’ and this sight affects the poet’s mood in a positive way. Before he was lonely and doing nothing but now he is alive and vibrant due to the daffodils. Again the theme is nature and Wordsworth’s feeling about it. He talks of it in a positive way and therefore nature can make mankind happy.
In the poem there is a clear rhyming scheme, there is an alternate rhyming scheme and then rhyming couplets at the end of each verse. The poem is a very personal poem and there is a lot of personification used that indicates that the writer was writing of past experiences with himself and nature.
In Wordsworth poems he would refer to nature in a more positive way than Heany. Imagery in the four poems was used excellently throughout, although Heany did use more similes and metaphors. Heany’s rhyming scheme was different; he didn’t use distinct line of rhyming, he mainly used half rhyme or alliteration, however on the other hand Wordsworth used rhyming on alternate line and at the end of a verse there was a rhyming couplet. The mood was completely different for both poets, Heany would start his poems on a positive beat and onwards it would change to negative and sour to represent what life is really like and that is isn’t always fair. Wordsworth would start his poems on a sad tone of even on an angry tone but it would gradually change to a positive mood. Both of the poets have based their poems on real experiences with nature. Heany tends to write his poems from a child’s prospective and Wordsworth on an adults point of view. In William Wordsworth’s poem he writes about nature entirely but Heany is ambivalent. The style of each poet is completely different, Wordsworth is more of a romantic poet while Heany is more modern and realistic. Heany uses all senses, Wordsworth tends to concentrate just on sight. All in all two very talented poets, Seamus Heany and William Wordsworth.
