A Comparison Between Death of a Naturalist and Digging

A Comparison Between Death of a Naturalist and Digging

For GCSE course work we have to compare two poems from a foreign

culture. The two poems we picked were both by the popular Irish poem

‘Seamus Heaney.’ The two poems we’re looking at ‘Death of a

Naturalist’ and ‘Digging’ could be seen as autobiographical. ‘Death of

a Naturalist’ is basically about a young boy who had a keenness for

nature, which has disintegrated throughout a summer. ‘Digging’ is

about the poet remembering his childhood, he writes about about

digging as though it is patriotic of his family. He talks about fore

fathers and how he will continue this tradition, not by digging on a

farm but with his pen, writing.

Although with seemingly different storylines, the poems actually start

off quite similarly; with both poems taking you back you a specific

time in the poets’ childhood. In ‘Digging’ the poet is remembering

other people in his life, like his grandfather and father but with

‘Death of a Naturalist’ his memories are all introspective. In both

poems the original plot is elaborated upon with ‘Death of a

Naturalist’ taking a negative line and ‘Digging’ turning positive.

In ‘Death of a Naturalist’ the poem is split into two stanzas; this

separates the poets’ opinion in two, full of enthusiasm in one

‘I would fill jam pots full of……’

To the lack of enthusiasm in the second

‘I sickened, turned, and ran’

‘Digging’ is split into many stanza’s of seemingly almost random

length, nut when you look closer you see that they get longer when the

poem read to better things, for example the poet get most enthusiastic

when he remembers his grandfather this is reflected in the fact that

this stanza is by far the longest at eight lines.

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...athered there for vengeance’

There are examples of onomatopoeia in both poems although it isn’t

used at length in either. I noticed ‘slap’ is used in both poems, both

in descriptions of mud or dirt sentences, showing the link in the

poets’ language.

Overall I enjoyed both poems though I did prefer ‘Digging’ as I like

the way the poet flicked back and forth through time. I could also

visualise this poem more, like a film, which I liked. I also like the

cast use of alliteration which made the poem kind of roll off your

tongue. There is also a really good use of onomatopoeia in the poem in

the second stanza.

‘Under my window a clean rasping sound’

This sentence really draws you into the poem and you can almost hear

the rasping as the shovel sinks into the ground. To sum up, all of

these factors and more are the reason as to why I prefer ‘Digging’