Seamus Heaney Poetry

Learning Goal: To gain understanding of Seamus Heaney’s background Task:Take out your research notes on Seamus Heaney that you completed in the library.Share with your table then share with a different group.

Seamus Heaney ContextWhat influenced him?

List influences under the headings

Family/Landscape Political

Childhood Think of a childhood activity which you enjoyed.

Consider why you enjoyed it.

When did your perception of it change? When did you realise that you no longer saw it through innocent childhood eyes?

Death of a NaturalistA poem about the journey into adulthood revolving around Heaney’s initial delight in collecting tadpoles, and then his developing disgust. Through the poem he looks at both sides of nature.

What do you think is the importance of the title?

Look at Youtube clip

ToneThe opening lines encapsulates more than one tone about nature.

Festered Rotted Sweltered Punishing Smell

Bubbled gargled delicately

Gauze of sound Spotted butterflies

ToneWhat do the previous examples convey about nature?

Write a response, including at least 4 of the quotes.

How does Heaney show his fascination with nature?

Find examples from lines 8-14

Use these quotes to write a response.

Poetic Techniques

Voice

Describe the voice used in the poem? Find quotes that convey its childlike quality.Eg. I would fill jamputfuls of the jellied…Miss Wallace…the daddy frog…the mammy frogLittle eggs

TASK: Why is the childlike voice significant?

Alliteration

Quote‘Coarse croaking’ What impact does the harsh ‘c’ sound have?

Onomatopoeia

Quote‘bubbles gargled delicately’What feeling does this convey in contrast to the imagery of decay?

Onomatopoeia

Quote‘Slap and Plop’

What type of sounds does this create? How does it link to the imagery?

Similes

‘loose necks pulsed like sails ‘

‘Some sat poised like mud grenades’

What do the similes convey about his perception of the frogs?

Metaphor

Quote‘Their blunt heads farting’What does the metaphor reveal about the frogs?

Personification

Quotes‘The Great Slime Kings’

‘Punishing sun’

How does this reveal his awareness of nature and fear of the frogs?

Imagery Alliteration Assonance

Quote‘jampotfuls of the jellied/ specks’

nimble-/swimming tadpoles’

What impact does the imagery combined with alliteration and assonance have?

Stanza TwoWhat is the significance of stanza two? How has the tone changed? How has his perception changed? How is his disillusion and disappointment

revealed after his initial pleasure?

TASK: Write a response to stanza two – using the language to answer the questions above

Stanza TwoHow is the dark side of nature conveyed?Consider the language: Rank Angry frogs Coarse croaking Gross bellied Before…. (Consider how this shows he’s

changed) Obscene threats Gathered there for vengeance Spawn would clutch it (power of his

imagination)

Follower Learning Goal:To consider the child – adult life journey through the imagery of the land

Parents and Grandparents What adult did you look up to and follow

around as a child? How did you perceive your parents and

grandparents when you were a child? Have these perceptions changed? Do you think they will change in the

future?

Structure

What does it remind you of?

How does it convey the cyclical nature of life?

. 6 stanzas

. Begins as a child

. concludes as an adult

Find Quotes to show: How did he view his father? How did he view the traditions of farming

the land? How did he view himself in relation to his

father and his ability to help?His shoulders globed like a full sail strungThe sod rolled over without breakingI stumbled in his wake…All I ever did was follow

VoiceWhat type of voice?

Why this choice?

How does tense change? Why

‘My father worked…’‘I stumbled in his wake’‘I wanted to grow up and plough’‘But today/It is my father who keeps stumbling’

TASK: Use language from the poem to respond to the choice of voice and tense

Images Links to the land Links to the

cycles of nature Traditions Strength of the

horse‘My father worked with a horse plough’‘The sod rolled over without breaking’‘…team turned around’‘Mapping the furrow’

How do each of these quotes link to the ideas listed on the left?

Mid Term Break The subject of this poem is the death of

Seamus Heaney’s younger brother, Christopher, who was killed by a car at the age of four. Its emotional power derives in large measure from the fact that Heaney is very understated with respect to his own emotional response. He chooses to focus more upon the reaction of his parents in order to show the shocking impact of the death of their little boy.