• A Comparison of Heaney "Death of a Naturalist" and Larkin "First Sight"

     

    Essays2 Literature

Evaluation:
Published: 28.01.2004.
Language: English
Level: Secondary school
Literature: n/a
References: Not used
  • Essays 'A Comparison of Heaney "Death of a Naturalist" and Larkin "First Sight"', 1.
  • Essays 'A Comparison of Heaney "Death of a Naturalist" and Larkin "First Sight"', 2.
Extract

The initial observation is that both poems contain connotations of nature, Death of a Naturalist focuses on frogs and First sight on Lambs. Both contain two stanzas, however the structure is not as standard in Death of a Naturalist as it contains a stanza of 21 lines followed by one of 12 whereas First sight has two stanzas of 7 lines.
There are images of winter and death present in First Sight, "Meet a vast unwelcome, know nothing but a sunless glare". The title itself suggests a tone of unknowing and uneasiness. The animals were used to convey personal experience in a non-literal sense, for example the lamb is the symbol of life in its dead surroundings. First Sight is constructed with the rhyming structure of A, B, A, B, A, C, C. The 'C, C' is a rhyming couplet present at the end of each verse, this adds emphasis to these lines.

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