I will be comparing three poems called Storm On The Island (SOTI), Death Of a Naturalist (DOAN) both by Seamus Heaney and The Field Mouse (TFM) by Gillian Clarke

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I will be comparing three poems called Storm On The Island (SOTI), Death Of a Naturalist (DOAN) both by Seamus Heaney and The Field Mouse (TFM) by Gillian Clarke.

I picked out several key contrasts in the three poems that linked to war, danger, senses, differences and similarities and changes.

War is demonstrated throughout all three poems, for example; on Line 18 of SOTI, Heaney writes that the area is “bombarded” by the crash of waves and the weather. A comparison to this in DOAN would be on Line 30, “like mud grenades” again hinting at the sound and feel of war, he uses the simile to give the idea that the frogs were motionless and waiting to detonate or strike at something. In TFM, Clarke uses the words “the air hums with jets, compared to the other poems, we get the same idea of war or the imminent threat of war.

Another point I picked out in DOAN was that on line 24, Heaney mentions that “the angry frogs invaded” the area, this tells the reader that there was a threat; like soldiers entering a country prior to an invasion. As a comparison to this I found that line 26 of TFM which says that the air was “stammering with gunfire” gives us the sense of hostility and the environment was unsafe.

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In SOTI, it says that the waves “pummeled” the house, in comparison to TMF where the scene is set in the civil war in Bosnia; the surrounding building would have been “peppered” with bullet holes and damage from artillery fire.

On topic of danger I found many points in all three poems that link to each other and contrast each other. In TFM on line 16, the fields are “hurt”, the danger of a battlefield, death, destruction and dehumanization, to compare this I found that on line 27 of DOAN, the word “cocked” gives the sense that the frogs ...

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