4.

Death of a Naturalist 79

ISection H: Multiple Choice Questions

What does the word naturalist' mean?
(a)Aperson who is interested in Nature.
(b) Aperson who has no artificiality about him / her.
ic) Aperson who studies animals, plants, and other living things.
id Aperson who believes that everything on carth is natural.
"flax'?
2. What is a
plant which is covered with thorns.
(a) A
(b) Aplant that is very flexible. linen.
(c) Aplant with blue flowers, the stem of which is used to make
() Amedicinal plant.
3. What is a bluebottle?
(a) Alarge fly with a blue bod.
(b) Abottle, blue in colour, for medicines.
(c) Abottle meant for blue liquids.
(d) Aword often used by poets for alliterative effect.
4. Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun. (line 4)
What does the poet mean by 'the punishing sun?"
uncomfortable.
(a) The extremely hot sun that makes standing under it
(b) Scorching sun which is sometimes experienced in cool places.
(c) Sun which makes one feel hungry and thirsty.
(d) Sun at 12.00 noon sharp.
5. Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun. (line 4)
an
The poet has given the human quality of punishing to the sun. What is this
example of?:
(a) Simile (direct comparison) (b) Metaphor (indirect comparison)
(c) Personification (d) Pun
6. Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun. (line 4)
What does the word 'sweltered' mean?
(a) stifled (b) dried
(c) burnt (d) became dry and brittle.
1. The words 'bubbled' and 'gargled' are examples of
(a) Oxymoron (b)Onomatopoeia
(c) Alliteration (d) Adjectives used as verbs.
 4. Death of a Naturalist

8. In the first stanza of the poem the poet is (speaker)

(a) intrigued and excited to see nature.
(b) fascinated by the sight of dragonflies.
(c) fascinated by the hot sun rotting the sheaves of flax.
(d) disappointed by the sights he sees.
9. In the first stanza the poet describes
(a) the practical wisdom of an adult human being.
(b)the innocence of childhood.
(c) the destruction caused by the sun.
(d) the patheticsight of sheaves of flax rotting in the sun.
10. The speaker (The "" of the poem) is fascinated by
(a) the sight of the rotting flax plants.
(b) the sights and sounds of nature like the gurgling noise made by spring.
(c) the smellof the rotting sheaves of flax.
(d) the bluebottles, the spotted butterflies and the dragonflies.
11. The speaker is fascinated most by
(a) the frogspawn which he collected in jam bottles.
(b) the dragon flies and the bluebottles.
(c) the spots on the bodies of the butterflies.
(d) the heat of the countryside.
12. I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied / Specks ... (lines 11-12)
What does the phrase "Jellied specks' mean? ee
(a) The frogspawn :
(b) The mysterious things that float in a river or lake.
(c) The eggs laid in the water by the fish.
(d) The slimy things that we can see floating in the water.
13. What did the speaker do with what he collected in jampots?
(a) He showed them proudly to his friends.
(b) He showed them proudly to his science teacher.
(c) He arranged them neatly at home and at school.
(d) He watched it in fascination until Miss Walls praised him for it.
14. The fattening dots burst into nimble
Swimming tadpoles. (lines 13-14)
What does the word "nimble" mean?
(a) Fast-moving (b) Agile
(c) Moving quickly (c) Allthe three listed above.
 4. Death of a Naturalist

15. MissWalls
taughtthe boys and girls elementary things about nature.
(a) and girls complicated facts about metamorphosis.
(b)taughtthe boys
and all the facts about amphibians.
(c)taught boys and girls advanced
(d) taught boys girls zoology.
Then one hot day when the fields were rank
16. (lines 23-24
With cowdung ...
What does the word `rank mean in the context of the poem?
row.
(a)arrangec in a neat
smell
(b) having a pleasant
(c) having an unpleasant smell
(d) covered with cowdung.
through hedges. (line 24)
12. I ducked
Why did the speaker duck through hedges?
(a) He wanted to explore the hedges. under the hedges.
b) He wanted to find out if he could find some frogspawn
He was frightened by the hoarse croaking noise he suddenly heard.
(c) by adult frogs.
(d) He was attracted by the hoarse croaking noise made
 Section J:Solved and Unsolved Questions
SoLVEp QUESTIONS
1. Write avery brief summary of the poem Death of aNaturalist.
The poem Death ofa Naturalist by Seamus Heaney describes the exploits &
young, innocent schoolboy, collecting frogspawn fromaflax-dam. The speale
remembers every single detail he, saw and felt at those times. He remembe:
his science teacher telling him all about 'mammy' and daddy' frogs. Tra
section of the poem speaks volumes about the innocence of childhood. Final
the narrator speaks about a trip to the flax-dam that went awfully wrong. i:
heard the hoarse croaking of adult frogs and he felt frightened. He was terifi:
by the presenceof a number of adult frogsand he fled the place, perhaps neve
to return. His interest in nature was gone. This is the death of a naturalist tha:
Seamus Heaney is talking about.
2. Illustrate the poet's use of onomatopoeia and simile with examples from
the poem.
Seamus Heaney makes extensive use of two poetic devices-onomatopoe:
andsimile in the poem Death ofa Naturalist. The noise made by running war
 is described with two onomatonoeic words-bubbles and gargles. lowaras
the endof the poemn, the narrator describes the croaking of the adult frogs
with two words slop and plop, which are also examples of onomatopoeia. Ihe
perfect example of the use of simile is found towards the end of the poem,
where the narrator compares the adult frogs to grenades:
Some sat poised like grenades. (line 30)
Like cloted water' is yet another example of the use of simile. In this example,
the narrator is comparing frogspawn to 'clotted water".
3. Write a brief critical summary of the first stanza of the poem Death oj a
Naturalist.
The poem Deathofa Naturalist by Seamus Heaney is made up of two stanzas,
with a definite, noticeable shift in the thought at the beginning of the second
stanza. (This shift is called a volta, which is very commonly found in sonnets,
particularly Petrarchan sonnets). In the first stanza made up of twenty-onelnes,
the poet creates a very pleasant image of the countryside, focussing mainly
ona flax-dam, where most of the action of the poem takes place. In the first
stanza, the reader is made to sense the intriguing qualities of the countryside
and its: excitement. The excitement experienced by the child is conveyed to
the reader in several lines of the stanza, one of which is the following:
But best of allwas the warm, thick slobber
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
In the shades of the bank. (lines 8-10)
The speaker (an innocent schoolboy) documents allthis in great detail, tracing
theirevolution from 'jellied specks' to 'nimble swimming tadpoles". Reading
the first stanza of the poem is like reading the pages of an elementary science
book, or listening to a teacher like Miss Walls.
The lineI would fl jampotfuls ofthe jellied specks", with the useofalliteration.
creates a cheerful tone and makes the reader understand the delight of the
child. The first stanza describes in detail the cheer, joy, excitement and delight
of an innocent child, but at the same time, the poet creates an ominous tone by
the use of words like 'festered', 'sweltered', 'rotted' and 'punishing'. In the
Second stanza there is a change of tone-from cheer and delight to fright and
revulsion. This change is made obvious by the use of the word Then', which
begins Stanza 2.
4. Write very briefly about the structure of the poem.
The poem has two stanzas, both written in blank verse (with no rhyme)
metre employed by Heaney is the popular iambicpentameter. Each ine b
ten syllables, every two syllables forming a metrical foot. In each foot thes
isunstressed and the second is stressed. Let us take one line and establish
feature. The end of feet is indicated with the mark /. In each foot. the streses
syllable is underlined.
On shelves/ at school, / and wait / and watch/ until
Foot 1 Foot 2 Foot 3 Foot 4 Foot 5