Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Judging by the events and information in the poem, approximately how old do you think the speaker is? How did you come to your estimate?
- What do you think attracts the speaker to collecting the frogspawn in the first place (besides being part of his homework)?
- Why do you think Heaney uses some of these soft, pleasant words like "delicately," "best," and "warm" to describe what seems like a pretty gross scene (frogspawn in a rotting flax dam)? When in the poem do you notice that Heaney no longer uses the gentler descriptive words among the nasty ones to describe the frogs? And why do you think he makes this shift?
- In end of the poem, what do you think the speaker is really scared of? Deep down, he can't possibly think that frogs are going to take him down, but he is sincerely afraid. Why?
- Even though his hobby didn't harm the tadpoles at all, do you think the speaker feels guilty for taking the frogspawn? If so, why?