Death By Naturalist
"Death of a Naturalist" by Seamus Heaney and "Out, Out" by Robert Frost share many similarities in both the subject and the way they are written.
"Death of a Naturalist" is a poem that vividly describes a childhood experience in which a young boy enjoyed collecting tadpoles in "Jampots" for his pleasure. As time passes his love for raw nature turns to fear and disgust, when one day he notes a change in his attitude to what he now sees and hears. "The tadpoles have turned into ugly frogs that he found repulsive".
"Out, Out" describes the fragility of life with a theme of child labour, It's a poem about a young boy doing a man's job "Though a Child at Heart", and that would have been common at the time this poem was written (1916), being just a child he gets distracted only for a moment and has a tragic accident that claims his life.
Both poems have a similar style of writing with no rhyme. They are both written in blank verse and both use a capital letter to start each line.
"Out Out" is written in a continuous stanza of thirty four lines that continually build up to the tragedy at the end. The build up is evident with "frosts" choice of words and he uses them to create suspense, "The Saw Snarled and Rattled" which is interpreted as power and aggression unlike "Death of a Naturalist" that is written in two stanza's and the break makes the change in the boys life, also there are examples of enjambment, a run of lines with no pause or punctuation.
Alliteration is used in both poems to set the scene in the mind of the reader, "Death of a Naturalist" "Sweltered in the Punishing Sun", likewise in "Out Out" alliteration is used on line three "Sweet Scented Stuff" which is also a triple.
Imagery is used in both poems to set the scene in the mind of the reader, in "Death of a Naturalist", Heaney uses imagery in his choice of words, "Punishing Sun" dragon-flies and spotted butterflies,...
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