What is the central theme of the poem Death of a Naturalist The central theme of the poem Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney is the loss of childhood innocence At first the child loves nature He feels safe with it He enjoys every small thing He plays with frogspawn He waits for tadpoles He loves to learn about frogs Nature feels friendly Nature feels soft This shows the child s pure and simple mind But later the child becomes frightened Nature suddenly feels strange It feels wild It feels dangerous The frogs look big and angry They make loud noises They seem to rise up against him He feels they want revenge This moment breaks his old love It takes away his innocence It changes how he sees the world Another theme is the change from joy to fear The boy moves from curiosity to shock The same