These simple images show a child who enjoys every small detail of nature Even though the flax-dam is dirty and smelly the boy loves it Rich Sensual Images We also find rich images that appeal to our senses like smell and touch The flax-dam gives a festered smell but the boy does not feel disgust Instead he finds it interesting A child is innocent and curious so even bad smells seem wonderful to him The boy loves the frogspawn most Frogspawn are the jelly-like eggs laid by frogs But best of all was the warm thick slobber Of frogspawn He loves to touch the frogspawn He collects it in jars and watches small dots turn into tadpoles These are vivid images that show how close the child is to nature Fearful Images in the Second Section In the second part of the poem Heaney s imagery changes completely The images become disgusting and frightening The air is full of a terrible smell of cow dung The frogs are no longer cute Their bodies look swollen and slimy Heaney writes they were angry frogs and gross-bellied Right down the dam gross bellied frogs were cocked On sods These disgusting and frightening images help us understand the boy s changing attitude toward nature The frogs look threatening to him He feels that nature is now ugly angry and dangerous not lovely anymore It shows the loss of childhood innocence and the beginning of maturity The Frogspawn The frogspawn is a major symbol in the poem At first frogspawn represents innocence childhood curiosity and joy The boy loves collecting it He sees the tiny movements feels the jelly in his hand and waits for tadpoles to grow But later the same frogspawn looks ugly and scary The boy thinks that if he dips his hand in the water the frogspawn will attack it If I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it This frogspawn becomes a symbol of lost innocence This change from joy to fear shows that the boy is growing up The Frogs In the second half the frogs become a symbol of the frightening side of the world They are now ugly and slimy Their movements seem threatening They look like mud grenades They show that the real world is not always gentle It can also be wild and threatening Bluebottles The bluebottles symbolize the busy and noisy life of nature Their buzzing sound shows energy and activity in the flax-dam They also represent how nature can be both lively and dirty at the same time To sum up through rich imagery and powerful symbols Heaney shows how childhood wonder slowly changes into fear The frogspawn and frogs become symbols of innocence and its loss In this way imagery and symbolism make the poem rich and special