Death of a Naturalist
so disgusted by croaking frogs.
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 dragon-flies, 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.
Seamus Heaney
• The title is amusingly ironic – we cannot imagine real naturalists being
• The scene is set in the ‘heart’ of an urban area, where flax-dam has
‘festered’ all year. The verb ‘festered’ is a term of putrefaction and
creates a repulsive image of the flax-dam. The lexicon is replete with
terms of putrefaction (‘rotted’, ‘sweltered’, gargled’, ‘slobber’,
‘clotted’…).
• The flax was ‘green and heavy headed’. The alliterative ‘h’ combined
with the vowel sounds of ‘heavy headed’ underline the weight of the
flax. It had ‘rotted there, weighted down by huge sods. / Daily it
sweltered in the punishing sun’. ‘Rotted’ adds to the already repulsive
image created, as does the fact that the flax ‘sweltered’. The sun has
been personified and appears aggressive as it ‘punished’ the flax.
• Indelicate onomatopoeia is used to describe the bubbles which ‘gargled
delicately’, giving a sense of the unpleasant sound of the place. Apart
from the sound of the bubbles, our attention is drawn to the sound made
by the bluebottles which ‘wove a strong gauze of sound around the
smell’. This is an unusual image as sound is not usually described as
something tangible. It is as if the sound imprisoned the smell, which
would only have grown more pungent as a result.
• The insects that were found are listed, ‘but best of all was the warm
thick slobber / Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water / In the shade
of the banks’. Heaney, an inquisitive child, was attracted to the
frogspawn. He was aware of its unpleasant nature, noting that it ‘grew
like clotted water’, but seems to have coped with it. The simile (‘like
clotted water’) creates an accurate visual image of the frogspawn.
• He records the fact that, as a child, he used to fill ‘jampotfuls of the
jellied specs…’
• Miss Wall’s explanation of the names of the frogs and their methods of
reproduction seems slightly patronising when contrasted to Heaney’s
almost scientific interest in the subject.
• The second verse marks the change in Heaney’s attitude to the flax-dam.
This is signified not only by the fact that the two verses are physically
separated, but by the word ‘then’.
• His attention was drawn by the ‘coarse croaking’ of the ‘angry frogs’
who had ‘invaded the flax-dam’. The sound of the frogs is emphasised
by the alliterative ‘c’. The description of the ‘angry’ frogs as ‘invading’
the flax-dam makes them seem like an organised force. Perhaps, as a
child, Heaney thought they were ready to enact ‘vengeance’ upon him
for taking the ‘jampotfuls of jellied specks’.
• Again he portrays the sound as something which was tenable: ‘The air
thick with a bass chorus’.
• The potential danger posed by the ‘angry’ frogs is made apparent by the
image of them ‘cocked/ On sods’. It is as if they were guns ready to go
off. They were also ‘poised like mud grenades’. This simile portrays
the frogs as weapons, and is particularly appropriate when you consider
the colour and shape of frogs.
• A sense of the largeness of the frogs’ necks is conveyed by the simile
‘their loose necks pulsed like sails’.
• He remembers the frogs’ heads as ‘farting’. This explicit language
underlines the unbearable nature of their sound.
• He was ‘sickened’ by the frogs, ‘turned, and ran’.
• Hyperbole is used to describe the frogs as ‘great slime kings’, elevating