The third poem is Roe-deer; it is a very interesting and a mysterious poem, by Ted Hughes written in first person, as are both Heaney poems. He is driving his car early one morning it is dark and snowing, all of a sudden two deer come and stop in front of the car.’ They had happened into my dimension.’ The moment I arrived there Hughes looked at the deer’s and went through a sense of illusion. The deer indirectly giving him a sense secret. ‘I could think the deer were waiting for me, to remember the password and the sign.’ This makes the poem mysterious and like science fiction. The meeting only lasts a couple of moments and then as soon as the secret is about to come into Hughes knowledge. They run away. ”They ducked through the hedges and upright they rode their legs.” Everything went back to the ordinary.
It is dark and grey which makes the atmosphere of the poem very dull. The mood "deer stood in the road, alerted". Once again he uses war like imaagery, a person who is at war would be very alerted. Hughes describes the deer as being "blue-dark"; this is possibly due to the first glimpse of the deer being their silhouette on the snow, which can appear to be "blue-dark".
The word "alerted" is separated from the rest of the sentence to add to the reader's ability to imagine the scene. This encounter is also rare and so it is also used to signify this.
Roe-deer may seem like a very weird poem. Ted Hughes has a strong belief. That is, we as humans have our own world and animals have their own. We will never understand each other but however we will live together side by side. In this poem Hughes claims he almost came to knowledge of the animal world, specifically the deer world which he says “secret deer hood.”
Seamus Heaney learns from his experiences with the frogs that they are not nice and cute animals like he though. This is because of how angry frogs invaded the flax-dam they ruined his love for frogs this is something he has learned.
Death as mentioned in the title ‘Death of a Naturalist.’ The title is confusing, we expect to read about a death, instead we find the story of a young boys fascination with frogspawn. As we read on we discover that the death is not literal, it is symbolic. A naturalist is a person who is interested in nature and wildlife, the young boy in this case; the death is of his interest in nature. After the encounter with the frogs he is no longer a naturalist.
This poem is about ‘rites of passage’, the move from childhood into adulthood. The poem could also symbolise the ‘death’ of childhood innocence. The innocent view of the kindness of nature is destroyed, never to be regained. In 'Death of a Naturalist' his childhood memories had destroyed his childhood perspective, as an adult he now realises looking back how the frogs wouldn't attack him, the mammy and daddy frogs were now just the bullfrog and frog. He now also realises how the frogs are not yellow if it is sunny and brown when it rains but only they appear to be different from the different brightness and shades of colours showing his lack of innocence in both poems. In Roe-deer colours are also involved but they are dull colours such as grey and black.
In An Advancement of Learning ’Heaney’ learns how to fight against the rat by staring at it. Heaney goes a step further in learning. Hence the title’ An advancement of learning’. In contrast to ‘Death of a Naturalist’ this poem is the opposite. This is because in this poem Heaney overcomes his fear from being afraid of the rats and now not being frightened. ‘ Forgetting of how I use to be scared.’ In ‘Death of a naturalist’ Heaney firstly wasn’t afraid of the frogs and would love them. After the “angry frogs invaded the flax-dem’ Heaney becomes frightened of them.
In ‘Churning Day’ another poem written by Heaney. Is in contrast to these two poems. This is because Heaney does not change feeling for anything like he did with the frogs and not with the rat. He does not become frightened of anything and neither does he advance in learning. Like he did with the rats. This is just a poem about a day, which Heaney has experienced in life.
We can tell what time it is each poem by the evidence, “All year.” Death of a Natuarilist, the refrences to time is very intresting. In the first stanza the time is general: ‘All year’, ‘every year’. The first stanza describes a general intrest in nature. It also shows that the, collecting of frogspawn he does every year and that he is very familiar with the area he describes, having visited it often: ‘ Daily it sweltered.’ In Roe-deer he tells us what time it is “Early morning.”
The refrence to time in the second stanaz is a signpost for the move from genera enjoyment to a specific event at a specific point in time ‘Then one hot day.’
Both poets have added imagery got to do with war, in their poems.
Imagery takes a very vital part in all three poems. The poets use specific words to create an picture in the readers mind. By using imagery the reader feel more entertained and interested, each poem has a range of imagery which include similies, personification,war like imagery and sensory images.
In Death of a Naturalist, a simili is used to show how dangerous he thought the frogs were “poised like mudgranades.”. War imagery is used “poised like mudgranades” They stood there like a grenade which has just been thrown by the enemy and is about to explode. Heaney often used war imagery, this may be to the fact of his experiences as a child and brought up in Ireland, there were civil wars going on at the time. This may of influenced him to write about war.
In comparison with An Advancement of Learing, he uses war imagery once again.”He trained on me” it is like the the rat was a soldier at war, targeting the enemy with a gun, but really the rat is looking at him with his eyes.
Similar, in Roe-deer Hughes also includes war imagery, “Then they ducked through the hedge.” It is like the deer’s have been spotted at war by the enemy and have ducked to hide from the enemy. In the same way as Heaney, Hughes uses certain words to create an clear picture in the readers mind. Churing Day written by Heaney. This poem also has some imagery connected with war, “large pottery bombs” Once again he uses war imagery.
Heaney writes more about war images then Hughes this is because when he was brought up there was a civil war going on in Ireland, this influenced him to wirte about war.
In order to make the poem more effective, the poet’s have added personification. Personification describes a thing or objectas if it is a person, or having human qualities. Death of a naturalist “ the punishing sun” It is not possible for the sun to punish him, but he describes the heat of the sun as though it is punish him.This gives the effect of how hot it use to be.in contrast, there is no personification in An Advancement of Learing. However, in Roe-deer there is personification, “The snow took them” It is not possilble for the snow to take the deers lost to his sight as of snow flakes.
The main comparison which I noticed between these poems is that all three poems are concerned with nature. In An Advancement of Learing, the poem is about a rat. In Death of a naturalist there is a frog and Roe-deer, there are deer.
Another comparison is that all three poems are written in first person,voice of author an personal experience. This shows that they are all telling about there own experiences. But in Hughes poem he is writing about an experience which took place when he was old, we know this because he was driving. However, Heaney is much younger in both poems, this can be proven by, “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”, also another voice that of teacher add to realism .Heaney is being talken to by a primary school teacher and therefore it shows he is young.
In An Advancement of Learing there is no clear evidence that he is young but at the beginning Heaney does not cross the bridge and takes the easy route, and this is an action of an adventures 10 year old.
