Comparing and contrasting two Poems on the theme of childhood By Essay

Comparing and contrasting two Poems on the theme of childhood By Seamus Heaney. Comparing and contrasting two Poems on the theme of childhood Having read the four poems from Seamus Heaney's collection "Death of a Naturalist", I have decided to Compare and contrast the two poems that I like best, which are "Death of a naturalist" and "Follower". Both of these are childhood stories set in the countryside. These reflect how Heaney felt about different aspects of life in his surroundings. This is one of the reasons that I have chosen these two poems the idea of the countryside makes me feel at home with these two poems. They are both set in the open air, which creates an open atmosphere. "Death of a Naturalist" is the first poem I chose to write about because of the overall effectiveness of the poem. This poem has been written in paragraph like stanzas, this gives me the feel of making the poems look full of descriptions; it also looks very exiting looking at all the stanzas are crammed into one. As you look at the poem you can see effective use of vivid similes such as "Frogspawn grew like clotted Water" Frogspawn that grows like "clotted water" shows you the fullness of the frogspawn it also shows us that the frogspawn is racing and covering the pond water very fast it also gives me an impression that he enjoys seeing the frogspawn growing and covering the pond as he enjoys collecting frogspawn "I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied specs" This shows the enjoyment of a young child collecting and watching something grow. We see the use of positive phrases "There were dragon-flies, Spotted butterflies... " The use of commas and short sentences give us an understanding of the child's ... ...od jobs around the farm. The last lines in the poem make us think about what has happened to his father. "It is my father who keeps stumbling Behind me, and will not go away" the effect this creates by saying his father is weak and falling away behind him tells us that the roles have been reversed. After looking at these two poems many things are very similar in the way they have been written: the language and form are authentic language of farming by this I mean that the poems have got a use of old farm language an describe things in a farming form. Heaney also leaves the reader with a final line to think about. By reading the two poems Heaney now feels that it is time to break away from his past and he also feels different from his family. I think this because he is looking back and writing about the past and he is able to write about the future.