Compare and contrast 'Death of a Naturalist' and 'Digging' by Seamus Heaney.
Compare and contrast 'Death of a Naturalist' and 'Digging' by Seamus Heaney. The poems 'Death of a Naturalist' and 'Digging' have many similarities, and contrasts. Some of the reoccurring themes in the two poems include memories of childhood and changes in the life of the writer. There are contrasts too, in 'Death of a Naturalist'; the writer is concentrating on himself and his own experiences in life, rather than the experiences of others. In 'Digging', the opposite is true, as the writer concentrates mainly on the events in other people's lives, namely his father and grandfather. The endings of both the poems have a different feel to them. 'Digging' finishes in a much more positive tone than 'Death of a Naturalist', which ends on a lower note, of the writer realising his own cynicism. In spite of this, both poems have similar tones in their openings, creating opposing feelings when compared with their final stanzas. The poet, Seamus Heaney wrote these poems. He was born on April 13th 1939 and was the eldest of nine children. His parents, Margaret and Patrick Heaney brought Seamus and his siblings up on a farm thirty miles from Belfast in County Derry. Later in his life, he went to St Josephs College in Belfast and studied English and where he also earned a Teaching Certificate. Later in his life he became a lecturer at this college. There he joined a poetry workshop
I shall be writing about three of Seamus Heaney's poems to show "the lyrical beauty and ethical depth that exalt everyday miracles and the living past.
I shall be writing about three of Seamus Heaney's poems to show "the lyrical beauty and ethical depth that exalt everyday miracles and the living past In the poem 'Digging', Heaney is able to bring to life 'the living past' where in watching his father digging flowerbeds he is able to recall childhood scenes when his father dug up new potatoes, which had to be collected by the children. It also leads him further back into his past to remember his grandfather digging peat to be burned as fuel on the fire. Heaney uses the image of digging to explain how, by looking through his past, he can unearth his roots to discover who he is: 'Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests, I'll dig with it.' Also in this poem he includes themes of childhood memories, the past and present and rural life. Seamus Heaney was born in 1939, and brought up on a fifty-acre farm in Northern Ireland. Although technology had advanced greatly in the early twentieth century, traditional farming methods, which have been handed down for generations, were still used on the farm. In 'Digging' Seamus Heaney's admiration is clear in the loving way he writes about their skill with a spade. 'By god, the old man could handle a spade Just like his old man.' 'My grandfather cut more turf in a day Than any other man on Toner's bog' The way the lyrical way he writes about his father and
Commentary on Seamus Heaney's "Scaffolding".
Mrs. Guezalova English IB 11 Commentary on Seamus Heaney's "Scaffolding" Jennifer Wang Block C Feb. 5, 2004 Seamus Heaney's "Scaffolding" is a simple yet dense poem. The poem uses metaphor to suggest that relationships are not naturally exist but are built over a period of time. Once this relationship has formed its shape, the endurance of such can be reached at eternity. With a determined, confident and very inspirational tone, Heaney emphasizes the importance of trust between the two people through five neat couplets with rhyme. "Masons" in the very first line of the poem is a metaphor suggesting the two people who share the same interests that are determined to establish a friendship. "When they start upon a building / Are careful to test out the scaffolding" depicts the two person's first try to build a friendship. The word "careful" and "test" shows the uneasiness of getting to know a person well at the beginning of the meet due to human's cautious nature. The process towards relationship building is instilled in the next two stanzas. "Make sure that the planks won't slip at busy points" can be interpreted as when mutual difficulties arise, the two people would join together to solve the problems and the relationship won't fall from it. "Ladders" represents the essential stages to reach the height of the relationship and to "tighten bolted joints" refers to the
How does Seamus Heaney use language to create a rural Irish scene in 'digging'?
How does Seamus Heaney use language to create a rural Irish scene in 'digging'? Seamus Heaney does a number of things to create the rural Irish scene. Some of the rhyming that he used would not rhyme unless done with an Irish accent, such as sound, ground and down. These are very special northern Irish sounds that have to be used. Also he is dispassionate during the poem like using the word 'rump' instead of a nice word such as lower back. Also the farming aspect creates the typical Irish farmer vision, through generations and generations they are farming. Also he alliterates with 'buried the bright edge deep' using allied consonants. 'Snug as a gun' is assonance because snug and gun are very similar words. Seamus also reminisces about his father and his grandfather. The word lug is a very Irish word and is not commonly used in mainland English. Lug means the straight top part of the spade. Seamus describes how he is digging metaphorically with his pen, for his future generations to come. It is his equivalent of the families spade. Seamus avoids using euphemisms during his poem to produce the harsh reality of what is really there. Squelch and slap is an onomatopoeia meaning a word that sounds likes what it means. There is no regular rhyming pattern throughout the poem. Heaney's father has great skill when it comes to digging, "levered firmly" and "By God, the old man
How does the poet convey the sadness of death in 'Mid-Term Break'
How does the poet convey the sadness of death in Mid-Term Break? The concepts of death and grief are often interlinked. This is demonstrated in Seamus Heaney's poem, 'Mid-Term Break', where he conveys the sadness of death after his own brother, Christopher, dies. Heaney uses various language techniques, sound devices, symbolizations and contrasts to achieve this sense of sorrow. In the first stanza, Heaney's clever use of the phrase "counting bells knelling classes to a close" illustrates the similarity of school bells to funeral bells. The use of assonance and alliteration in this phrase emphasizes the funereal sounds of the bells. Also, the hard consonant sounds in "counting", "classes, and "close" foreshadow some form of cruel finality, providing a feeling of melancholy, as well as apprehension. After such subtleties, we can finally see blatant evidence to the presence of death. In the second stanza, when Heaney arrives home, he sees his "father crying", even though he "had always taken funerals in his stride". Because of the line "he had always taken funerals in his stride", we learn that someone has died. Also, Heaney's father can be seen to be strong and unyielding. Yet, this image of him crying and grieving so openly demonstrates how distressing this death really is. Looking at Heaney's other parent; in her we do not see a soft or idealistic image of a woman
The three poems I will be looking at in this essay are ''My Papa's Waltz'' ''Our Father'' and ''The Early Purges''.
Obviously our childhood is the most important period of our lives, it determines how we develop and can have a great influence on we will be like when we grow up. Much of our formation depends on our parents and how strict they are etc. I have had a reasonably good childhood. I have had two parents who have jobs, which means two sets of wages are coming into the house every week. That has enabled us to have a comfortable lifestyle. The three poems I will be looking at in this essay are ''My Papa's Waltz'' ''Our Father'' and ''The Early Purges''. In this essay I will be looking at childhood and how childhood experiences are recalled by the different poets and reflected in the way they write their poems. These poems are disturbing in the way that they all include cruelty. The first poem that I will look into is ''My Papa's Waltz''. In this poem a boy seems to be getting hurt by his father we know this because it says ''You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt''. but this only seems to happen when the father is drunk because the poem opens up with the observation that ''the whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy'' The father might possibly be a very violent man we see this when it says which tell us that the dad likes a fight or two the poet recalls how ''the hand which held my wrist
Seamus Heaney and Sylvia Plath both approach death and ageing in their poems. Seamus Heaney wrote a poem about blackberry picking.
Seamus Heaney and Sylvia Plath both approach death and ageing in their poems. Seamus Heaney wrote a poem about blackberry picking. It has a meaning to it. It explains in his words how things age and die. I shall refer another Seamus Heaney poem and two of Sylvia Plath's poems to "Blackberry Picking." Seamus Heaney's poem "Blackberry Picking" is about a child's point of view of how everything ages. We know it is a child's point of few by parts of the poem "our palms sticky as Bluebeard's". With these five words it can be noticed that the poem is situated in the 1920's, as Bluebeard was a child's fictional character from pirate stories. Also, it being a pirate character, it can be said that it is allegedly a boy's point of view. Seamus Heaney's poem "Blackberry Picking" has many words in which he uses to describe the berries. Some of these words are parts of the human body. Such as "its flesh was sweet" and "summer's blood was in it" or "Like a plate of eyes." All these personification words show that Seamus is trying to refer his poem to the life of humans. "For a full week, the berries would ripen." This quote is found on the second line of the first stanza. As it is very close to the beginning, Seamus, again, is trying to tell the reader he is describing the life of humans through the life of blackberries. The quote means that the blackberries are at their
What do we learn from digging and follower about Seamus Heaney’s relationship with his father?
What do we learn from digging and follower about Seamus Heaney's relationship with his father? From the poem 'follower' I have learnt that Heaney's relationship with his father changed dramatically from when he was boy to the present time. As a boy heaney obviously admired his father and wanted to be just like him when he grew up he would watch his father at work and follow him around asking questions because he was interested and did not understand what his father was doing, I would imagine that he caused quite a nuisance to his father. however now heaney feels differently about his father and considers him to be the nuisance following him around asking questions about what he is doing because he do's not understand. I think we learn more from the poem 'digging' about how 'heaney' once felt about his father than we do in 'follower'. I think that 'follower' describes his fathers physical appearance and hard working ways more than how Heaney feels about him. heaney manages to convey the ploughing as physically demanding by explaining that the horses were strained and sweating and that his father was a team with them so he was working equally as hard, and his shoulders globed as though he is hunched over, getting the horses to move to all the exact points that he needs them to go to. 'Globed' particularly stands out to me as it helps me imagine that this was back breaking work
Death Of A Naturalist comment on how appropriate the title, "Death of a Naturalist", is and comment on how it changes meaning.
"Death Of A Naturalist" I have been asked to comment on how appropriate the title, "Death of a Naturalist", is and comment on how it changes meaning. The poem is set out in two sections of blank verse (unrhymed lambric pentameter lines). In the first section the poet. Seamus Heaney, notes the festering in the flax-dam, but can cope with this familiar scene of things, rotting & spawn hatching. Perhaps as an inquisitive child he felt some pride in not being squeamish. He thinks of the bubbles from the process as gargling "delicately". He is confident in taking the frogspawn. It's something he does every year and watches the "jellied-specks" become "fattening dots" then turn into tadpoles. He almost has a scientific interest in knowing the proper names ("bullfrog" and "frogspawn") rather than the teachers patronising talk of "daddy" and "mammy". Especially the idea of forecasting the weather by looking at the frogspawn because it's not very helpful as it is blatantly obvious if it is sunny or raining and so there is no need to look at the frogspawn. Seamus Heaney uses onomatopoeia more lavish here than in any poem - and many of the sound are very in delicate: "gargled", "slap and plop" and "farting". The lexicon is full terms of putrefaction, ordure, generally unpleasant things such as "festered", "rotted", "slobber", "clotted water", "rank with cowdung" and "slime kings".
How Do You Respond To Mid-Term Break? What techniques does Heaney use? Having read the title 'Mid-Term Break', I assumed that the poem
How Do You Respond To Mid-Term Break? What techniques does Heaney use? Having read the title 'Mid-Term Break', I assumed that the poem was about a student's holiday abroad or something similar, however as I progressed through reading the play, I realized that it had a different meaning. The poem has a very deceiving title, a mid-term break is supposed to be a joyous time of holiday but here Heaney must deal with the death of a family member. This misleading title is the first technique used by Heaney to attract the attention of the reader. The poem is also told in first person and this gives the effect that the emotions come straight from the boy to the reader. We respond directly to the boy, which provokes greater sympathy in us when we find out that his brother dies. The first stanza is telling us that the boy is away from home, isolated, upset and waiting. It is made up of short sentences to build up tension and create shock as though the reader is expecting something to happen. One phrase that struck me was 'our neighbors drove me home'. This suggested to me that something had happened as usually a student's parents take them to and from school. We then find out that the father, apparently always strong at other funerals, is distraught, while the mother is too angry to cry. Also the euphemism used by 'Big Jim Evans' - 'it's a hard blow'. Having read this I
