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

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

Both poems are similar in their content as they are both written by

Seamus Heaney about his childhood experiences. I also believe that

both his experiences have a similar content.

In "Death of a Naturalist" we find that the poem is about being out in

fields collecting frogspawn. In "Blackberry Picking" the poet is

speaking again about his childhood experiences in the fields. This

time he is collecting blackberries. This is similar to "Death if a

Naturalist" as it is in the wild at a young age enjoying nature.

The titles are not so similar; "Death of a Naturalist" is a symbolic

title. The title is not literal, no one actually dies in the poem. The

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

the poet feels for the frogs but in the second verse he almost fears

them.

"Blackberry Picking" on the other hand is not a symbolic title it is

literal. In the poem the poet goes blackberry picking and this is

explained in the title. Although the title could be considered

symbolic also as perhaps the simplicity of the title portrays the

simplicity and innocence of the child's mind.

The mood between the two poems is also very similar. In "Death of a

Naturalist" the mood changes between the two verses. In the first

verse the poet enjoy going out and collecting frogspawn; he seems to

be very excited and enthusiastic. Whereas in the second verse he sees

the frogs in a different way. He does not enjoy collecting the

frogspawn any more. He seems to be afraid and almost disgusted by the

frogs. He describes them as "the great slime k...

... middle of paper ...

..." he uses pirate imagery to shoe his love for the fruit.

I think that the poet writes both poems in a similar style. He writes

both in free verse. Poets generally do this to tell a story, so this

is probably why Heaney uses this style. This style also allows Heaney

to create contrasting verses and include different from adult and

child perspectives.

In all I enjoyed both poems. They both had points I could relate with.

But I preferred "Blackberry Picking" because I believe it had much

more vivid imagery. This may be my opinion because it may be more

vivid to me as I have experienced something similar. But I liked the

way the poet conveyed to the reader, the texture and taste of the

blackberries by using lines such as

"Summers blood was in it."

In all though I enjoyed Heaney's style of writing in both poems.