Death of Naturalist : Summary

Summary

In this poem, the poet describes some of the events of his childhood and highlights the stages from childhood to maturity. Experiences gained in youth and incidents in childhood come flooding back to the mind.

Here he describes some phenomena of nature, among them the flying mosquitoes, the strong sunlight penetrating the hard soil, and the cyclical growth of frogs. Seamus Heaney was a science student as a child and was educated in various subjects of science. On that occasion, he went one day to clean the pond of insects, rotten smell, and bubbling water. At that time his school teacher was teaching them about the reproductive system of frogs.

From there the poet gives some description about the reproductive system of the frog in this poem. Frogs change their body color with the change of season. At this time, apart from hatching, they release a type of jelly called frig spawn inside the pond, and from there their hatchlings hatch. Seeing this phenomenon, the poet called the big frogs in the pond as mommy frogs and daddy frogs.

Then the poet saw some frogs on the dung lying on the grass which scared him. Then the poet thinks that the pond frogs may have come to take revenge on the poet for the crime of stealing the jelly they left in the pond. Thinking this, the poet runs away from there and during the escape, he enters from innocence i.e. childhood to maturity i.e. he becomes a young man.