First Language English for Cambridge IGCSE

pg. 64

Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney(1966)

All year the flax-dam festered in the heart

Of the townland; green and heavy headed

Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.

Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.

Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles

Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.

There were dragonflies, spotted butterflies,

But best of all was the warm thick slobber

Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water

In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring

I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied

Specks to range on window sills at home,

On shelves at school, and wait and watch until

The fattening dots burst, into nimble

Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how

The daddy frog was called a bullfrog

And how he croaked and how the mammy frog

Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was

Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too

For they were yellow in the sun and brown

In rain.

    Then one hot day when fields were rank

With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs

Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges

To a coarse croaking that I had not heard

Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.

Right down the dam gross bellied frogs were cocked

On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:

The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat

Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.

I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings

Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew

That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.

    How does Heaney convey two points of view in this poem? Explore the words and images, and think about how and why the speaker changes his opinion.

Heaney tries to convey two points of view in this poem by explaining the frog with positive, bright tone at the first and later using negative and serious tone. At first, the poet loved nature especially frogs and was amused and interested in them. 'Best of all was the warm thick slobber of frogspawn' shows that he has a positive thought towards the frogs. 'every spring I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied specks' indicates that he enjoyed playing with nature. The fact that he remembered what his teacher taught him about frogs also illustrates the idea that he was fascinated by them that he paid a lot of attention towards it. 

As the poem continues, in the second stanza, he described frogs as 'angry' which is a negative expression. He used the word 'invaded' to show that he feels the frogs shouldn't be there and he is not in favour of them anymore. 'gross', 'threats', 'sickened' creates the mood that he hates frogs. 

I think the poet changed his opinion because he found out the unpleasant nature of frogs and that didn't satisfy his expectations towards them. He felt they were disturbance to him after he changed his opinion which is totally different from the view of the previous stanza. For the first stanza, he conveys the readers that frogs are helpful and are necessary for people and how nature is beautiful. However, in the second stanza, he persuades readers that frog is a pest, unpleasant, and are unnecessary creatures.