How Does Hahney Use Tension In Death Of A Naturalist

Seamus Haney has written poems that have caused readers to be moved, inspired, and most of all, relate to and understand. This poet has his readers understand and relate to his poems in his use of truths and tension. In "Death of a Naturalist", the poet tells a story about a young boy who collects frog eggs from a pond every spring. He puts the eggs in jars and watches the tadpoles hatch, all for his own amusement. One day, the boy sees a huge group of frogs around the pond the frog eggs come from. He can only assume the frogs are there for revenge. In this essay the mains points will be the public and personal tension and the universal and individual truths in "Death of a Naturalist". This specific poem is used because it explores the tensions

and uses these truths to make an impact on the readers.
In "Death of a Naturalist", the poem is littered with personal and public tension scenarios.

In the beginning of poem, the poet states: "In the shade of the banks. / Here, every spring I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied / Specks to range on window sills at home,"(Line 10-12). These lines show personal tension because it's an something only the narrator experiences. The poet's use of tension allows the reader to appreciate the narrators depth. In the next lines, the poet states: "On shelves at school, and wait and watch until / The fattening dots burst, into nimble / Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how" (Lines 13-15). This is an example of public tension, because he is discussing something that happened at school where other students attend, and his teacher is remarking on his frog eggs. This use of this public tension builds an innocent feeling for this poem, so the ending makes a more powerful impact on the reader. It is also here to remind readers that the narrator is a child. And finally, the poet states "when fields were rank / With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs /Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges"(Lines 22-24). These lines exhibit the personal tension, because there are animals involved, but only one human. No other human is there to experience this. This personal tension makes a huge impact of the reader - we go from an innocent child at school to a person facing something that horrifies them. The way the poet uses the personal and

public tension in this specific poem is what really impacts and connects the readers.
An individual truth is something that only one person can relate too.

In "Death of Naturalist", most of the individual truths are memories that belong to the narrator alone. In this poem, the poet states: "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." (Line 1-4). This is an example of a individual truth, because this is a description of the of the narrator's fictional hometown. This poet's use of this truth and his use of imagery in this example gives the reader a picture in their mind of a place that isn't even real. The next example states: "Here, every spring / I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied / Specks to range on window sills at home,/"(Line 10-12). This is an example of of a individual truth because this memory doesn't mention anyone else lining the window sill with jars of frogs eggs. This truth is here to remind readers that the narrator of this story is just a child. Finally, the poem states: "The great slime kings / Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew / That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it."(Line 31-33). This is also individual truth, because this a memory of terror the narrator experiences alone. This truth indicates the major change in the poem, when his calendar custom suddenly is interrupted by frogs, seeking revenge for the theft of all these years. There are many individual truths in this poem,

and the way the poet uses them makes it enjoyable to read and relatable.