Death of Naturalist by Seamus Heaney

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Recommended: Analysis of the poem death

Death of Naturalist by Seamus Heaney The poem "Death of Naturalist" was written by a well known Irish poet Seamus Heaney. The title "Death of a Naturalist" gives us a sense of loss. The opening line "All year the flax-dam festered in the heart" gives us specific detail like in Blackberry picking. The alliteration in the first line such as flax-dom and festered links in with the second stanza. Flax-dom is an onomatopoeia and festered has association of sickness and decay. It contrasts with the happy description in the first stanza when he recalls collecting the frogspawn. He builds up this specific place and location. The image of the flax rotting is an image of the cycle of nature. We see him coming to the terms with the death of nature in both of his poems. When he mentions the bubbles gargled delicately; delicately contrasts with the flax festering and gargled is onomatopoeia. Also he mentions that the "Bluebottles wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell", gaze is a very powerful and effective image. It unites two sensory images that are sight and ...

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