“I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied specs”
This shows the enjoyment of a young child collecting and watching something grow. We see the use of positive phrases “There were dragon-flies,
Spotted butterflies... ”
The use of commas and short sentences give us an understanding of the child’s enjoyment of wildlife. We can tell by the use of short sentences that the child is full of excitement, as he has not got time to explain everything in detail so the use of short phrases is a very good and accurate choice of grammar. He also tells stories about the frogs
“You could tell the weather by frogs too
For they were yellow in the sun and brown
In rain”
This is a clear, straight to the point use of childhood language showing the true importance of the creature to him. You can tell by the use of vocabulary in the first stanza that it has all been written in a positive format, which can tell us the appreciation of everything that was around him glazing in the sunlight.
The second stanza has become a different type of stanza by becoming negative. This is to do with the change of view on the subject. The start of the second stanza
“Then one hot day”
Shows us that the main feature has changed. Heany has done this in a quick and sudden move although by the end of the first stanza everything is too imaginable and boring. So by bringing in something different it creates excitement and tension for the reader. He has also began this stanza with a use of effective use of hard, blunt matter-of-fact language the words are; angry, this gives us an idea of the mood of the frogs, rank, this shows that there is many of them there in force, Invaded, this gives us the sense of power becoming more powerful. You can tell by the choice of these words that this is to do with military. By becoming a negative stanza Heany has got to bring some kind of frightening lines for the reader to become involved Heaney has done this by bringing the child’s imagination into it. The use of words like “obscene threats, some sat poised like mud grenades.”
These show the terror the child faces in his mind, this is also a good use of simile and is a detail description of how the frogs are poised. Heany brings the poem to end but leaves the reader with a final line to think about with words that speak for themselves “that if” the use of these make you think about what is going to happen.
The poem “Follower” has got a different meaning to “Death of a Naturalist” because the two are set on different things. “Follower” begins with a use of descriptive simile “His shoulders globed like a
Full sail strung”
This gives us an idea of the size of his father’s shoulders and the immense power he has as a full sail strung has two meanings. One meaning is the sheer size of a full sail the other is that a full sail would have a lot of power. The first line also says
“My father worked with a horse plough”
This tells us that his father worked with his plough and his horses, the meaning of this tells us that he helped the plough along and looked after it. The use of “the horses strained at his clicking
tongue”
This tells us that he has got control over his horses and the horses know how to respond to him. The next stanza begins with “An expert” this show his pride of his father working with the plough. Heany tells us how skillful he is with the plough and his farther knew everything about the plough. The use of describing the parts of the plough to us shows us that his father has explained to Heany what they are it also shows that he has taken an interest in what his father has told him “the bright steel-pointed
sock”
This shows us a feel of sharpness and cleanliness on the plough.
“His eye
Narrowed and angled at the ground,
Mapping the furrow exactly” the use of these lines show us a sign of concentration and is also showing his proud ness of his farther knowing what he is doing.
Then as in the Death of a Naturalist the mood changes to a negative by him always getting in the way of his father. He continues to look up to his father but he is getting fed up of following his father round the farm
“All I ever did was follow
In his broad shadow round the farm”
The use of this shows us that in more detail that his father was the one who did all the good jobs around the farm. The last lines in the poem make us think about what has happened to his father.
“It is my father who keeps stumbling
Behind me, and will not go away” the effect this creates by saying his father is weak and falling away behind him tells us that the roles have been reversed.
After looking at these two poems many things are very similar in the way they have been written: the language and form are authentic language of farming by this I mean that the poems have got a use of old farm language an describe things in a farming form. Heaney also leaves the reader with a final line to think about. By reading the two poems Heaney now feels that it is time to break away from his past and he also feels different from his family. I think this because he is looking back and writing about the past and he is able to write about the future.
