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Discuss the poems Death of a Naturalist and Personal Helicon by

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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 …show more content…

The forth to sound and sight and is portrayed using 'echoes' and 'music' and 'call' all give a loudness about the verse 'a rat slapped' a scary sight, given its scariness from his use of language. The fifth verse to all three mentioned senses, touch sight and smell portrayed by him 'fingering slime' and how he would 'stare' and the ringing 'echoing' of the darkness. This is he uses language to evoke a sentiment upon the reader with words.

Both poems encounter his childhood experiences of nature, his feelings and view as a child. Heaney's use of language 'rotted' 'sweltered' and
'gargled' are one use of language used to evolve an image of his innocence. Another technique Heaney uses to form an image of innocence is how he called the frogs 'Mammy' and 'Daddy' frogs along with
'jellied specs' would then turn into tadpoles, further promote the childhood view of what he was unsure of and where the frogspawn came from and what it was. Therefore when he realised he was stealing the young of another animal his guilty conscience set upon his shoulders giving him a misinterpretation of the frogs leading him to believe that they were evil and would grasp his hand should he try to take anymore. Realistically this would never happen, but as if in another world, the imagination of a child is very powerful.

In 'Personal Helicon' again he

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