Comparing and contrasting two Poems on the theme of childhood By

Comparing and contrasting two Poems on the theme of childhood By

Seamus Heaney.

Comparing and contrasting two

Poems on the theme of childhood

Having read the four poems from Seamus Heaney's collection "Death of a

Naturalist", I have decided to Compare and contrast the two poems that

I like best, which are "Death of a naturalist" and "Follower". Both of

these are childhood stories set in the countryside. These reflect how

Heaney felt about different aspects of life in his surroundings. This

is one of the reasons that I have chosen these two poems the idea of

the countryside makes me feel at home with these two poems. They are

both set in the open air, which creates an open atmosphere.

"Death of a Naturalist" is the first poem I chose to write about

because of the overall effectiveness of the poem. This poem has been

written in paragraph like stanzas, this gives me the feel of making

the poems look full of descriptions; it also looks very exiting

looking at all the stanzas are crammed into one. As you look at the

poem you can see effective use of vivid similes such as

"Frogspawn grew like clotted Water"

Frogspawn that grows like "clotted water" shows you the fullness of

the frogspawn it also shows us that the frogspawn is racing and

covering the pond water very fast it also gives me an impression that

he enjoys seeing the frogspawn growing and covering the pond as he

enjoys collecting frogspawn

"I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied specs"

This shows the enjoyment of a young child collecting and watching

something grow. We see the use of positive phrases "There were

dragon-flies,

Spotted butterflies... "

The use of commas and short sentences give us an understanding of the

child's ...

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...od jobs around the farm. The last lines in the

poem make us think about what has happened to his father.

"It is my father who keeps stumbling

Behind me, and will not go away" the effect this creates by saying his

father is weak and falling away behind him tells us that the roles

have been reversed.

After looking at these two poems many things are very similar in the

way they have been written: the language and form are authentic

language of farming by this I mean that the poems have got a use of

old farm language an describe things in a farming form. Heaney also

leaves the reader with a final line to think about. By reading the two

poems Heaney now feels that it is time to break away from his past and

he also feels different from his family. I think this because he is

looking back and writing about the past and he is able to write about

the future.