In stanza 5 heany uses a military word to show that the boy is in the enemies’ territory. “ I established a dreaded Bridgehead. The way the rhyming structure was set in this stanza was different and that established that the poem was now changing again as the boy now was forced to face his fears. Usually the rhyming structure was that the 1st and 3rd line rhymed or the 2nd and 4th rhymed but now the words “stare” and “care”, which was the 2nd and 3rd, line rhymed. The 6th stanza just continues on saying that the boy is now listening to hear the evil plot of the rats. “ Insidiously listening.”
In stanza 6 and 7 he is forced to over come his fear and is now looking at the rat more closely and picking out his scary features and turning them neutral. “ raindrop eye” or “ old snout”. Now he is in control and he uses another military word. “ He trained on me. I stared him out Forgetting how I used to panic. Finally in the last stanza he has learned something new and he has won the war between him and the rats. “ Retreated up a pipe of sewage.
Now I am going to talk about Death of a Naturalist. This poem is about a boy who loves collecting frogspawn and loves little tadpoles and frogs. Then one day at school his teacher tells him about the bullfrog and he gets scared. Then one day the frogs were going back to the flax-dam and he things that they are out to get revenge on him for all the years he took the frogspawn so his love for nature dies out and he is scared.
The first line of the poem shows us that the child has a passion for the frogs, "Festered in the heart". This shows us that the feeling has been growing in his with a very strong effect for a long time. Heaney uses good imagery nature images to portray the surroundings of the area. Also in the first two lines he uses alliteration like,” flax-dam festered, and” heavy headed”. Also the nature he uses paint sensory images in our head like “Bubbles gargled delicately” The nature he describes so far. Is very muddy and slimy. The message he is trying to give across here is that it is a horrible scary place yet the boy is fearless and enjoys the nature. Another line which shows the fearlessness of the child is,” warm thick slobber Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water. This simile does not just give us a sensory image but it shows that he likes the frogspawn even though other people find it disgusting.
Now the whole poem starts to change because before he was using alliteration to make the sentences go quick and smooth but now the sentences are long and drag on. The author goes on saying that he used to love collecting the jam. This shows us that the times are changing because he is using past tense. “ here every spring I would fill jam pots”. Then the teacher in school tells him that the daddy frog croaked and then the mummy frog would then lay the eggs. “ the daddy frog” and “ mammy frog” This is actually very important because it shows the youth and innocence because he is talking as though he was a child and the teacher is not explaining properly about reproduction as she thinks they are too young.
The drastic turn in the poem now occurs as the frogs are coming back to the flax-dam. He thinks that the frogs are coming for him because for all those years he stole their eggs. “ The angry frogs invaded the flax-dam. He again is using a military term to show his point. Another war image he uses in the next sentence is, “I ducked through hedges.” He gives off a bit more evil with the line,” the air was thick with a bass chorus.” He then follows up with more military images to further increase his point which is the boy’s imagination turning on him and making him believe that these small creatures are coming to get him. “ frogs were cocked.” He uses onomatopoeia to quicken the sentences and give a sense of fear. “ Slap and plop.” One of the more detailed images he uses are threatening and war like making the reader fell that the boy in the poem is being attacked by a large army and makes us sort of fell bad for him and also afraid. “ obscene threats.” The simile he uses to make war images and also make this language speed up is,” poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.” He is still trying to use quick sentences and fast language to make the couple of seconds in the boys life last really long. Then the final blow was struck and the boy’s nature was taken from him. “ The great slime kings Were gathering there for vengeance and I knew That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.
In both the poems heany uses fast language to show fear or memorable emotions the boy feels. Like in an “advancement of Learning” when the boy is forced to challenge his fear all the words start to flow together because he uses devices like alliteration or assonance, and he uses short quick sentences. When heany slows down his language everything seems to be calm and is usually in the begging. Also in both the poems heany loves to use war images or sensory images to help us understand what he is trying to say. I think that heany is talking about him self in the poems and I think that he used to love nature but something corrupted him, especially in “ death of a naturalist because the boy he talks about looses his innocence in the poem and his love for nature.
In conclusion the way heany uses the theme of nature to achieve his point is by using sensory images to make pictures in our minds and making us think. Like in “An Advancement of Learning he shows us the fear the young boy had and he describes the nature to make us think of slimy mud and mush and try to feel what the boy feels. “ something slobbered curtly, close, Smudging the silence.” Also in “Death of a Naturalist” Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting. I sickened, turned and, ran.”
