Discuss the poems Death of a Naturalist and Personal Helicon by

1244 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Treatment of nature in poetry

Discuss the poems Death of a Naturalist and Personal Helicon by

Seamus Heaney

Both poems examined revolve around the youth of Seamus Heaney. In both

poems the reader is told about Heaney's memories as a child and his

progressing memories as he grows up and understands his surroundings

more from an adults perspective. This essay will look at and evaluate

how the adult has been moulded from his childhood experiences, Discuss

and explain Seamus Heaney's use of language and tone to portray his

personal feelings, as well as events that led him to the stage of life

he was at and foreseeing from his child perspective and at the stage

he was at when he wrote the poems.

Children are naturally curious and interested about the things in life

that they are unaware and unsure of; in the case of 'death of a

naturalist' it is the aspects of nature, frogs, which, to him were

just the 'mammy and daddy frogs' merely harmless creatures. The writer

conveys that he took frogspawn from the pond, the frogs substantial

home. The result of him sealing the frogspawn causes Heaney to suffer

a guilty conscience, almost as if the frogs are coming to get him for

taking their children, his reality of the frogs turns into an

interpretation of evil, the object of fascination becomes 'slime

kings' and 'angry frogs' the vision of them is that they will attack

if anymore is taken.

Again in the second poem 'Personal Helicon' tells about his curiosity

for things this being wells. He would like to gaze long and mystically

into the pale whiteness of his own reflection. He also liked getting

dirty. The first verse appeals to sight and smell and is portrayed

through the 'smells of dank moss' and the 'dark drop and trapped sky'.

The second ...

... middle of paper ...

... Heaney uses

near rhyme to suggest this and not be convened with normal poetry or

rhyming.

Heaney looks back on his childhood and thinks about how fun it was to

sit by the wells and how he cant do that anymore as it is 'Undignified

as an adult' to still do that even though he wanted to and how the

only way he can feel like he is back by the well is to write about his

experiences by the well 'I rhyme to see myself'

In 'Death of a Naturalist' his childhood memories had destroyed his

perspective as an adult as he now realises looking back how the frogs

wouldn't attack him, the mammy and daddy frogs were now just the

bullfrog and frog. He now also realises how the frogs are not yellow

if it is sunny and brown when it rains but only they appear to be

different from the different brightness and shades of colours showing

his lack of innocence in both poems.

Show More
Related

  • Poem Analysis: The Case By Tim Seibles

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Tim Seibles' poem, The Case, he reviews the problematic situations of how white people are naturally born with an unfair privilege. Throughout the poem, he goes into detail about how colored people become uncomfortable when they realize that their skin color is different. Not only does it affect them in an everyday aspect, but also in emotional ways as well. He starts off with stating how white people are beautiful and continues on with how people enjoy their presence. Then he transitions into how people of color actually feel when they encounter a white person. After, he ends with the accusation of the white people in today's world that are still racist and hateful towards people of color.

    Read More

  • Nature and Love in the Poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym

    2355 Words  | 5 Pages

    Dafydd ap Gwilym has been acclaimed as the greatest poet of the Welsh language. As Rachel Bromwhich commented, Dafydd’s life "coincided miraculously in both time and place with an unprecedented opportunity to mate the new with the old" (Brom 112). Perhaps "mate" is a more appropriate choice of words here than Rachel intended. As his poetry depicts, Dafydd tried to mate a great many things in his time; the man is immortalized as a ball of raging hormones. A self-proclaimed "Ovid’s man," Dafydd took pleasure in identifying himself with the authoritative source of courtly love, a fresh trend in Wales during his life (Summer 29). Love, specifically courtly love, was among the new themes Dafydd merged with the traditional themes like nature. Even the ancient topic of nature, under Dafydd’s molding, took on new forms. Dafydd personified elements of nature to be his trusted messengers in poems such as "The Seagull." In the "Holly Grove," nature is subtly described as a fortress or protector of sorts. Variations of these elements of secret, protected, and secluded love mesh with images of nature throughout Dafydd’s poetry. However, nature seems to be much more than a confidant or mere factor in his search for love; Dafydd’s poems such as "Secret Love" suggest that nature is essential in this endeavor. Though Dafydd’s attempts at love are not limited to the natural realm, poems such as "Trouble in a Tavern" make it evident that only in the natural setting is Dafydd a successful lover.

    Read More

  • The Naturalist Ideas

    1300 Words  | 3 Pages

    Important aspects of naturalism are the ideas that people are essentially animals responding to their basic urges without rational thought, and the insignificance of man to others and nature. In The Jungle, Sinclair portrays Jurgis as a man slowly changing into animal as well as a man whose actions are irrelevant to the rest of the corrupt capitalist world of Chicago in order to show the reader the naturalist ideas of the struggles between man and society.

    Read More

  • Heaney's Poem Follower

    1604 Words  | 4 Pages

    "Heaney's Poem 'Follower'" is a poem about the poet's love and admiration for his father. It is also about the changes that occur between fathers and children as children move out from their parents' shadow. In the first half of the poem, the poet draws a vivid portrait of his father as he plows a field. As a young boy, the poet follows his father as he goes about his work and, like most boys, idolizes his father and admires his great skill, "an expert. He would set the wing and fit the bright steel-pointed sock.

    Read More

  • Romanticism And Nature Essay

    593 Words  | 2 Pages

    The connection between Romanticism and nature was said by Marjorie McAtee, to have strengthened with the idealism of folk cultures and customs. Many romantic artists, writers, and philosophers believed in the natural world as a source of strong emotions and philosophies. The artists and philosophers of the romantic period also accentuated the magnificence and loveliness of nature and the power of the natural world (McAtee, Marjorie, and W. Everett. WiseGeek. Conjecture, 03 Mar. 2014. Web. 05 Apr. 2014.) . Mary Shelly and many other writers like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were romantic writers who were apprehensive toward nature, human feelings, compassion for mankind, and rebellious against society. Romanticism, which originated in the 18th century, is something that emphasized motivation as well as imagination (Adjective Clause). In Frankenstein, Shelley cautions that the initiation of science and natural rational searching is not only ineffectual, but unsafe. In endeavoring to discover the mysteries of life, Frankenstein assumes that he ...

    Read More

  • The Theme of Shortness of Life Expressed in Poetry

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    he is afraid that he is going to be forgotten after he is dead but he

    Read More

  • Essay On Poems

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    The three sources I have selected are all based on females. They are all of change and transformation. Two of my selections, "The Friday Everything Changed" by Anne Hart, and "Women and World War II " By Dr. Sharon, are about women’s rites of passage. The third choice, "The sun is Burning Gases (Loss of a Good Friend)" by Cathleen McFarland is about a girl growing up.

    Read More

  • Comparison of Robert Frost's and Seamus Heaney’s poetry,

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Seamus Heaney’s poetry, there is a recurring theme of his talking of the past, and more predominantly about significant moments in time, where he came to realisations that brought him to adulthood. In “Death of a Naturalist” Heaney describes a moment in his childhood where he learnt that nature was not as beautiful as seem to be when he was just a naive child. Heaney does this on a deeper level in “Midterm Break” describes his experience of his younger brothers funeral and the mixed, confusing feelings he encountered, consequently learning that he no longer was a child, and had no choice but to be exposed to reality. Robert Frost in one sense also describes particular moments in time, where his narrator comes to realisations. However, Frost writes more indirectly than Heaney, and all together more metaphorically. In “A Leaf Treader” he symbolically talks about life and death through the autumn season. He does the same, in “The Road Not Taken” where the two roads are described to be a metaphor for the decisions one makes in life, and the inevitable regrets we face due to those decisions. In “Stopping by a Woods on a Snowy Evening” Frost directly talks directly of a moment in time, however the significant meaning being that in life one needs a moment of solace to appreciate peace and beauty.

    Read More

  • Poem Follower Seamus Heaney Analysis

    691 Words  | 2 Pages

    father. He admires the times he had with his father, and seeing both of them walk in an

    Read More

  • Personal Helicon Poem Analysis

    549 Words  | 2 Pages

    Seamus Heaney’s “Personal Helicon” reflects on the past, illuminating the clash between innocent curiosity of adolescence and wide-ranging moralities expected of adults. Although the poem lacks extreme, unnecessary sentiment, the speaker manages to personally connect himself with nature in order to create an enjoyable, wistful tone. The poet incorporates intense, powerful vocabulary in order to enhance the lines, which allows the reader to comprehend the recollections with greater illustrations and feel.

    Read More

  • Discuss the different relationships between man and nature in Cormac McCarthy’s ‘All the Pretty Horses’ and in a selection on poems by William Wor...

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    In ‘All the Pretty Horses’ Luis states ‘among men there was no such communion as among horses and the notion that men can be understood at all was probably an illusion’, by this he means the relationship man has with nature is totally unique, it is sacred; the relationship between men is a misapprehension. In some respects the reader may agree with the statement because it is true, man’s relationship with animals and nature is fairly simple compared to man’s relationship amongst each other which is far more complex due to conflict of opinion and other complications. John Grady Cole’s relationship with Alejandra faced much turmoil and complication, one of the biggest issues they faced was the fact Alejandra’s family condemned their relationship and forbid her to be with him. To a certain extent John’s romance with Alejandra mirrors Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in respects to their forbidden love, however their story does not end in tragedy. Wordsworth shows nature to be more of a companion for man in ‘The Solitary Reaper’. The woman reaps the crops alone in the field singing with a voice so ‘thrilling’ it resonates ‘Long after it was heard no more’. Although she is lonely, she is wholly reliant upon the sustenance she receives and the relationship she has with nature. The poet proceeds to compare her to the Cuckoo and the Nightingale stating ‘No Nightingale did ever chaunt more welcome notes to weary bands’ being compared to birds with such beautiful song surely displays her oneness with nature. Unlike the ‘maiden’ Victor tries to control and dominate nature, this resentment could stem from the fact his mother died of the fever, making him go to extreme lengths in constructing this figure from different body parts to create a cre...

    Read More

  • A Story About The Body Poem Analysis

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    “A Story about the Body”, a prose poem by Robert Hass, is literally about a man who supposedly loves a woman but then finds out about her health conditions and then changes his mind. This poem, when I read it, was more like a short story than a poem. The poem uses imagery and a variety of adjectives which allow the reader to put themselves in the story as if they were watching it happen.

    Read More

  • The Scarlet Ibis

    399 Words  | 1 Pages

    to touch it, and his brother told him that he will leave him by himself unless

    Read More

  • How Seamus Heaney's Language in His Poems Death of a Naturalist and Blackberry Picking

    2031 Words  | 5 Pages

    death is of the way the poet feels about the frogs. In the first verse

    Read More

  • The Theme of Death in Poetry

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Theme of Death in Poetry Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson are two Modern American Poets who consistently wrote about the theme of death. While there are some comparisons between the two poets, when it comes to death as a theme, their writing styles were quite different. Robert Frost’s poem, “Home Burial,” and Emily Dickinson’s poems, “I felt a Funeral in my Brain,” and “I died for Beauty,” are three poems concerning death. While the theme is constant there are differences as well as similarities between the poets and their poems. The obvious comparison between the three poems is the theme of death.

    Read More

More about Discuss the poems Death of a Naturalist and Personal Helicon by

Open Document