Analysing 'Death of a Naturalist' by Seamus Heaney
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can analyse how Heaney presents the power of nature in the poem.
Key learning points
- Throughout the poem, Heaney uses multi-sensory descriptions to create vivid imagery.
- Heaney creates a grotesque description of the flax-dam, perhaps to foreshadow its capability to be threatening.
- Heaney uses onomatopoeia in the poem to convey the speaker's enthusiasm for, and then later fear of, nature.
- Heaney presents the power of nature by portraying the frogs as an army through the use of a semantic field.
- Heaney perhaps aimed to show man's insignificance vs nature and discourage us from interfering in natural processes.
Keywords
Imagery - the use of words or figurative language to create vivid pictures
Vulgar - rude, offensive or indecent
Multi-sensory - when something appeals to more than one sense at the same time
Common misconception
When analysing this poem, students might not use terminology as well as they could.
Heaney uses a lot of onomatopoeia in his descriptions within this poem, as well as semantic fields and figurative language.
Teacher tip
A good starter activity could be to take words from the poem and ask students to sort them into different senses, so that they can see how Heaney plays with multi-sensory language to create his descriptions.
Equipment
You will need access to a copy of the Eduqas poetry anthology for this lesson.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Who wrote the poem 'Death of a Naturalist'?
Q2.Starting with the first, put the events from 'Death of a Naturalist' in chronological order.
Q3.Which poem from the following in the Eduqas anthology explores the 'Sublime'?
Q4.What is imagery?
Q5.What is alliteration?
Q6.What is enjambment?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of the following is an example of onomatopoeia?
Q2.What is a semantic field?
Q3.Which of the following words from 'Death of a Naturalist' show the speaker's disgust with the adult frogs?
Q4.What regal noun does Heaney use to refer to the adult frogs in 'Death of a Naturalist'?
Q5.Here is some analysis. Which word from 'Death of a Naturalist' could this analysis be attached to? 'The noise of the frogs has become an offensive sound for the speaker - he finds it ugly and vulgar.'
Q6.Which of the following might explain why Heaney wanted to portray the power of nature in 'Death of a Naturalist'?
To help you plan your 11 English lesson on: Analysing 'Death of a Naturalist' by Seamus Heaney, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 11 English lesson on: Analysing 'Death of a Naturalist' by Seamus Heaney, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 English lessons from the Poetry anthology (Assessment until summer 2026) unit, dive into the full secondary English curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.