“Death of a Naturalist” Introduction

• Read the full text of “Death of a Naturalist”

“Death of a Naturalist” Summary

“Death of a Naturalist” Themes

• 

  Innocence and Experience

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-33
• 

  Human Beings and Nature

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-33

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Death of a Naturalist”

• Lines 1-6

  All year the ...
  ... around the smell.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-10

  There were dragonflies, ...
  ... of the banks.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 10-15

  Here, every spring ...
  ... Swimming tadpoles.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 15-21

  Miss Walls would ...
  ... In rain.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 22-26

      Then one ...
  ... Before.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 26-30

  The air was ...
  ... blunt heads farting.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 31-33

  The great slime ...
  ... would clutch it.

  

  

  

  

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“Death of a Naturalist” Symbols

• 

  Bluebottles

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Line 5: “bluebottles”
• 

  Frogspawn

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Line 9: “frogspawn”
  • Line 19: “Frogspawn”

“Death of a Naturalist” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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  Where enjambment appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2: “heart / Of”
  • Lines 2-3: “headed / Flax”
  • Lines 5-6: “bluebottles / Wove”
  • Lines 8-9: “slobber / Of”
  • Lines 9-10: “water / In”
  • Lines 10-11: “spring / I”
  • Lines 11-12: “jellied / Specks”
  • Lines 12-13: “home, / On”
  • Lines 13-14: “until / The”
  • Lines 14-15: “nimble / Swimming”
  • Lines 15-16: “how / The”
  • Lines 16-17: “bullfrog / And”
  • Lines 17-18: “frog / Laid”
  • Lines 18-19: “was / Frogspawn.”
  • Lines 19-20: “too / For”
  • Lines 20-21: “brown / In”
  • Lines 22-23: “rank / With”
  • Lines 23-24: “frogs / Invaded”
  • Lines 24-25: “hedges / To”
  • Lines 25-26: “heard / Before.”
  • Lines 27-28: “cocked / On”
  • Lines 29-30: “sat / Poised”
  • Lines 31-32: “kings / Were”
  • Lines 32-33: “knew / That”

• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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  Where caesura appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “townland; green”
  • Line 3: “there, weighted”
  • Line 5: “delicately, bluebottles”
  • Line 7: “dragonflies, spotted”
  • Line 10: “banks. Here”
  • Line 13: “school, and”
  • Line 14: “burst, into”
  • Line 15: “tadpoles. Miss”
  • Line 19: “Frogspawn. You”
  • Line 24: “flax-dam; I”
  • Line 26: “Before. The”
  • Line 28: “sails. Some”
  • Line 29: “threats. Some”
  • Line 30: “grenades, their”
  • Line 31: “sickened, turned, and,” “ran. The”

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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  Where alliteration appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “flax,” “festered,” “heart”
  • Line 2: “heavy,” “headed”
  • Line 3: “Flax,” “had,” “huge,” “sods”
  • Line 4: “sweltered,” “sun”
  • Line 5: “Bubbles,” “gargled,” “bluebottles”
  • Line 6: “strong,” “gauze,” “sound,” “smell”
  • Line 7: “spotted,” “butterflies”
  • Line 8: “But,” “best,” “was,” “warm,” “slobber”
  • Line 11: “jampotfuls,” “jellied”
  • Line 12: “Specks,” “sills”
  • Line 13: “at,” “and,” “wait,” “and,” “watch”
  • Line 15: “tadpoles,” “Walls,” “would,” “tell”
  • Line 17: “how,” “he,” “how”
  • Line 18: “Laid,” “hundreds,” “little”
  • Line 19: “Frogspawn,” “tell,” “frogs,” “too”
  • Line 20: “For”
  • Line 21: “rain”
  • Line 22: “one,” “when,” “fields,” “were,” “rank”
  • Line 23: “With,” “frogs”
  • Line 24: “flax,” “dam,” “ducked,” “hedges”
  • Line 25: “coarse,” “croaking,” “had,” “heard”
  • Line 26: “Before,” “bass,” “chorus”
  • Line 27: “down,” “dam,” “cocked”
  • Line 28: “sods,” “sails,” “Some”
  • Line 29: “slap,” “Some,” “sat”
  • Line 31: “sickened,” “great,” “slime”
  • Line 32: “gathered”

• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where assonance appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “green,” “heavy”
  • Line 3: “rotted,” “sods”
  • Line 4: “punishing,” “sun”
  • Line 7: “dragonflies,” “butterflies”
  • Line 10: “every”
  • Line 11: “fill,” “jellied”
  • Line 12: “sills”
  • Line 14: “nimble”
  • Line 15: “Swimming”
  • Line 17: “he,” “mammy”
  • Line 19: “Frogspawn,” “frogs”
  • Line 23: “grass,” “angry”
  • Line 24: “flax”
  • Line 25: “coarse”
  • Line 26: “Before,” “chorus”
  • Line 27: “cocked”
  • Line 28: “sods,” “hopped”
  • Line 29: “plop,” “sat”
  • Line 31: “ran”
  • Line 33: “if,” “it”

• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where consonance appears in the poem:

  • Line 1
  • Line 2
  • Line 3
  • Line 4
  • Line 5
  • Line 6
  • Line 7
  • Line 8
  • Line 9
  • Line 10
  • Line 11
  • Line 12
  • Line 13
  • Line 14
  • Line 15
  • Line 16
  • Line 17
  • Line 18
  • Line 19
  • Line 20
  • Line 21
  • Line 22
  • Line 23
  • Line 24
  • Line 25
  • Line 26
  • Line 27
  • Line 28
  • Line 29
  • Line 30
  • Line 31
  • Line 32
  • Line 33

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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  Where metaphor appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2: “in the heart / Of the townland”
  • Line 5: “Bubbles gargled delicately”
  • Lines 5-6: “bluebottles / Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.”
  • Lines 8-9: “But best of all was the warm thick slobber / Of frogspawn”
  • Lines 11-12: “jellied / Specks”
  • Line 14: “The fattening dots burst”
  • Line 26: “The air was thick with a bass chorus”
  • Line 29: “The slap and plop were obscene threats”
  • Line 30: “their blunt heads farting”
  • Lines 31-32: “The great slime kings / Were gathered there for vengeance”

• Simile

  

  

  

  

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  Where simile appears in the poem:

  • Lines 9-10: “frogspawn that grew like clotted water / In the shade of the banks”
  • Line 28: “their loose necks pulsed like sails”
  • Lines 29-30: “Some sat / Poised like mud grenades”

• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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  Where imagery appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-10
  • Lines 11-13
  • Lines 14-15
  • Lines 22-26
  • Lines 27-30
  • Lines 31-33

• Personification

  

  

  

  

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  Where personification appears in the poem:

  • Line 5: “Bubbles gargled delicately”
  • Line 16: “The daddy frog”
  • Line 17: “the mammy frog”
  • Lines 23-24: “the angry frogs / Invaded the flax-dam”
  • Line 26: “The air was thick with a bass chorus”
  • Lines 27-28: “Right down the dam gross bellied frogs were cocked / On sods”
  • Line 28: “ their loose necks pulsed like sails”
  • Line 29: “The slap and plop were obscene threats”
  • Lines 29-30: “Some sat / Poised like mud grenades”
  • Lines 31-33: “The great slime kings / Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew / That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.”

• Diacope

  

  

  

  

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  Where diacope appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “flax-dam”
  • Line 3: “Flax”
  • Line 9: “frogspawn”
  • Line 16: “frog,” “bullfrog”
  • Line 17: “frog”
  • Line 19: “Frogspawn,” “frogs”
  • Line 23: “frogs”
  • Line 24: “flax-dam”
  • Line 27: “frogs”
  • Line 28: “Some”
  • Line 29: “Some”

“Death of a Naturalist” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Flax-dam
• Festered
• Townland
• Heavy headed
• Sods
• Gargled
• Bluebottles
• Slobber
• Frogspawn
• Clotted water
• Jampotfuls
• Jellied specks
• Range
• Fattening dots
• Mammy
• Cowdung
• Gross bellied frogs
• Cocked

• (Location in poem: Line 1: “flax-dam”; Line 24: “flax-dam”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Death of a Naturalist”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Death of a Naturalist” Speaker

“Death of a Naturalist” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Death of a Naturalist”

More “Death of a Naturalist” Resources

• External Resources

  • Seamus Heaney's Biography — A detailed biography of Heaney from the Poetry Foundation.

  • "Death of a Naturalist" Read Aloud — Seamus Heaney recites his poem, "Death of a Naturalist."

  • Heaney and Nature — This brief article discusses Seamus Heaney's relationship to nature in his poetry—touching on a range of poems from across his career.

  • Heaney's 10 Best Poems — An introduction to Heaney's poetry from the Telegraph newspaper.

  • "Death of a Naturalist" First Edition — A detailed essay on the publication of the first edition of Death of a Naturalist, including a number of photos from the book.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Seamus Heaney

  • Blackberry-Picking

  • Bogland

  • Digging

  • Exposure

  • Follower

  • Mid-Term Break

  • Out of the Bag

  • Personal Helicon

  • Punishment

  • Requiem for the Croppies

  • Storm on the Island

  • The Tollund Man