Commentary on "Death of a Naturalist"

In the poem "Death of a Naturalist", Seamus Heaney seems to suggest that humanisation and simplification of essentially foreign and incomprehensible phenomena often occurs through education and authority. Through the dramatic contrast in tone and diction between the first and second stanzas, Heaney emphasizes how observations of the harsh reality and threat of natural hierarchies can shatter childlike naïveté and admiration for the apparent simplicity and ordered structure of nature. This notion is already implied in the title, "Death of a Naturalist," suggesting that a realisa…