With Reference to Two or Three Poems from Death of a Naturalist, Explore Heaney’s Treatment of Nature.
Heaney is a poet who’s work focus’ on nature quite a lot. This is influenced by his heritage and nationality. Heaney was born in 1939 in County Derry, Northern Ireland. His first collection of poetry, Death Of A Naturalist, was published in 1966. He has since won numerous awards, including The Whitbread Prize for The Haw Lantern, and in 1995 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He has worked as a lecturer at many universities including Harvard and Oxford. (Heaney, S. New Selected Poems 1966 – 1987, 1990, back cover.) Upon reading Digging, the first connection between Heaney and Nature is displayed in the poem’s title. Where this title gives the visual image of digging soil with a shovel, the actual meaning behind the title could be interpreted differently. A different interpretation could be of Heaney’s digging of his own memories of his father and grandfather. The first lines are “Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rest; snug as a gun”, this could be interpreted as Heaney metaphorically digging into his past by writing down his memories of his father and grandfather working on their land. Heaney’s connection between the two interpretations is majestically shown through his remembrance of his father digging into the ground.
The title of Death Of A Naturalist is more straightforward. The title of this poem seems to be referring to the changes in interest towards his own personal naturalism. The poem is written in two very different stanzas, one in which he is in awe and wonder at the beauty of the nature around him in his native Northern Ireland. Whereas the second is the complete opposite in that instead of seeing the beauty of his surroundings, Heaney can only see the vile and horrible features of his surroundings. The title could be referring to Heaney’s own personal loss of innocence, as the first part is set during his childhood when he doesn’t know much about the reproductive cycle. The second part of the poem is set some unspecific time
The title of Death Of A Naturalist is more straightforward. The title of this poem seems to be referring to the changes in interest towards his own personal naturalism. The poem is written in two very different stanzas, one in which he is in awe and wonder at the beauty of the nature around him in his native Northern Ireland. Whereas the second is the complete opposite in that instead of seeing the beauty of his surroundings, Heaney can only see the vile and horrible features of his surroundings. The title could be referring to Heaney’s own personal loss of innocence, as the first part is set during his childhood when he doesn’t know much about the reproductive cycle. The second part of the poem is set some unspecific time