Heaney writes ‘Death of a Naturalist’ in two sections, to emphasise the changes in the boy: from simple to complicated. This is echoed in the use of sentences: the first stanza ends with a straight forward compound sentence and yet stanza two begins with a long complex sentence. This is showing the transformation from simple, to complicated: again reiterating the change from boy, to adolescent.
The effect depends heavily on the choice of Heaney’s language. Heaney tries to draw the reader into the atmosphere of the poem by describing the conditions at the scene; and elaborating on each of the four senses: Sight - ‘green and heavy headed’, ‘huge sods’, ‘spotted butterflies’ etc; Sound – ‘bubbles gargled delicately’, ‘bluebottles wove a strong gauze of sound’ etc; Smell – ‘festered,’ ‘rotted’ etc and Touch – ‘punishing sun’, ‘warm thick slobber of frogspawn’. The area comes across as oppressive, and muggy: much like the conditions of that of a swamp, or marsh – there is a sense of decay, and alliteration and assonance add to this sense. Again, sense is important in the poem as it increases the effect of the poem and if it was not present, the poem would definitely not have the effect that it does have.
The frogs in ‘Death of a Naturalist’ are described as ‘angry’ and we get the sense that Heaney sees them as ‘hostile’. Military terms are used: ‘cocked’, ‘mud grenades’, ‘vengeance’. He says that the ‘angry frogs invaded the flax dam’. Invaded is a military term also. The use of onomatopoeia helps to create the atmospherics: the frogs are described as slimy, their sliminess iterated in ‘slap’ and ‘pop’.
In ‘Cold Knap Lake’, Gillian Clarke writes about a little girl drowning (an incident in Clarke’s childhood), or so it was thought, at the artificial lake in Barry, South Wales. The little girl is thought dead, but then Clarke’s mother gives her the kiss of life and she is revived.
At the beginning of the poem, doubtfulness is suggested: ‘pull a drowned child from the lake’ – suggests that the young girl is dead. However, the phrase ‘she lay for dead’ suggests doubt. We are unsure if she is dead. However, the phrase: ‘the child breathed, bleating and rosy in my mother’s hands’ suggests that we know the child is okay.
Clarke suggests the significance of colours in this poem: ‘blue-lipped’, ‘long green silk’, ‘rosy’. Rosy is a colour we suggest with life, and also Clarke’s mother.
At the beginning of Stanza two, uncertainty is suggested again: ‘Was I there?’. Clarke queries whether she saw the young girl get beaten. It is at this point that Clarke suggests her childhood is hard to remember. Phrases and words such as: ‘shadowy’, ‘cloudiness’, ‘troubled’, ‘or’ suggest the difficulty of seeing the real thing.
In ‘On My First Sonne’, Jonson describes the greatest loss of youth throughout the whole of the four poems being studied: the death of his seven year old son, spontaneously, due to the plague. Jonson writes the poem as if he is speaking to his son, directly, yet he is not: although he believes his son can hear his words.
The loss of youth is suggested to have been lost to God. Jonson’s son was lent from God to him, and was chosen to be returned on the ‘just day’. The ‘just day’ was the day that his son was returned to God.
In ‘The Song of the Old Mother’, Yeats writes about the way that an old mother’s youth and childhood is long in the past. She must care for her children, and bring them up and help with their childhood all whilst she loathes them because her childhood is far behind.
Yeats repeats the word ‘must’ which suggests how she ‘must’ continue with her current routine, and is unable to live and enjoy life like the young and like she once could when she was young.
The phrase ‘seed of the fire gets feeble and old’ is a metaphor to how her own youth has died, the seed is now feeble and cold – her youth has passed and she is becoming older and more feeble.
All of the poems suggest a loss of youth and each poet portrays the loss through a use of language, and a sense of atmosphere, or an outlook on other people’s youthfulness.
Heaney makes use of the four senses to create an atmosphere, and uses this to emphasise the change between his childhood and his adolescence. Clarke writes about the near death of a young girl in Cold Knap Lake, South Wales and uses extensive colour references and a sense of doubt to indicate loss. Jonson writes about his seven year old son being lost to God, and finally Yeats writes about an old mother losing her youthfulness and how she is reminded of this through her children.
