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.
Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragonflies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring
I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied
Specks to range on window sills at home,
On shelves at school, and wait and watch until
The fattening dots burst, into nimble
Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how
The daddy frog was called a bullfrog
And how he croaked and how the mammy frog
Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was
Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too
For they were yellow in the sun and brown
In rain.
Then one hot day when fields were rank
With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs
Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges
To a coarse croaking that I had not heard
Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.
Right down the dam gross bellied frogs were cocked
On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:
The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat
Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.
I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings
Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew
That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.
The poem is generally about Heaney reflecting on his childhood and the loss of innocence and the realization that there are dark aspects to life. A "naturalist" is an expert or student of natural history. The poem is written in "free-verse" which represents the simplicity of childhood.
Crop grown in Ireland.
Negative imagery that could be hinting at the fact that nature can be unforgiving.
A positive section that also acts as the volta. No punctuation is used, suggesting breathlessness and excitement.
Pluperfect tense.
Pace slows down.
He's a child and is exploring nature based on what he has learned at school but finds out there are darker things about it as well. Miss Walls is most likely referring to his teacher.
Repeating and reciting what he was taught at school or elsewhere. The terms "daddy frog" and "mammy frog" are quite childish and represent his childhood innocence and purity.
Turning point or volta of the poem.
Mimics the narrative of a child, similar to "once upon a time."
Could be referring to the Troubles and sectarian violence in Ireland.
Frightening.
Onomatopoeia.
Childish.