How effectively does Heaney describe the transition from innocence to experience in 'The Early Purges' and 'Death of a Naturalist'?

... GCSE Coursework English: English Literary Heritage: Poetry English Literature: Poetry (post-1914) Seamus Heaney (1939-) How effectively does Heaney describe the transition from innocence to experience in 'The Early Purges' and 'Death of a Naturalist'? 'The Early Purges' presents the contrast between the practical realities of farm life where the death of animals is treated as a way of life and, on the other hand, the initial squeamishness of the poet as a child and the sentimental attitude of the town dwellers towards animals. 'Death of a Naturalist' is concerned with growing up and loss of innocence. Seamus Heaney vividly describes a childhood experience that precipitates a change in the boy from the receptive and protected innocence of childhood to the fear and uncertainty of adolescence. 'Death of a Naturalist' is set out in two sections of blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter lines). Heaney uses onomatopoeia more lavishly here than in any poem - and many of

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