Seamus Heaney's poem "Death of a Naturalist" recalls the innocence of the speaker's childhood and his experience of becoming more aware of the life in the flax-dam near his house. The speaker in the poem reflects on his childhood habit of taking frog-spawn from the flax-dam and reflects on how Miss Walls, presumably a teacher, taught the speaker and his classmates about frogs; though the speaker does not quote her, his language morphs to echo how she would speak to the children, referring to male and female frogs as “daddy” and “mammy” frogs.
In the second stanza of the poem, the speaker has a new experience in the flax-dam, and his perception of his own actions shifts. He finds that the “angry” frogs have “invaded” the flax-dam, where they are usually absent. They croak loudly and threateningly. The speaker feels sick and afraid, and he flees the scene without taking any frogspawn.
The poem is sensuous, detailed, and onomatopoeic. At the beginning of the poem, the language reflects the speaker’s innocence and wonder. Toward the end, the language remains visceral but becomes more ominous and repulsive. The comparison that Miss Walls makes between the frogs and a nuclear human family has perhaps played a part in sparking the speaker’s empathy for and fear of the frogs. The poem focuses on this change within the speaker, and it is unclear whether this change is growth, loss, or both.
