Compare "Follower" and "Digging"

Compare "Follower" and "Digging" In the both poems Heaney reveals that he has an agricultural background running through his family, in "follower" he only talks about his father's generation being a father and in "digging" he talks about himself, his father and his grand father being diggers. In both poems the author talks about himself watching his past generations farming and explains that they are very skilled. Both poems are very alike in some ways like these, but for example in "Follower" Heaney says that the boy was always a nuisance to his father "tripping, falling, yapping always." On the other hand, in "digging" the boys talks about his father and grandfather how they are so skilled, but he seems to appreciate their skills and look up to them but he wants to follow something different in life, " but I've no spade to follow men like them, Between my finger and my thumb, the squat pen rests, I'll dig with it" this extract makes it sound like he wants to dig up some history of some sort, maybe family history, that isn't supposed to be known about. In this poem both father and son talk about how good their fathers can handle a spade. In "Follower" the boy thinks his father of "an expert" .The father didn't seem very generous with the child; "sometimes he rode me on his back" the boy says this as if it were a real treat. The boy in this poem wants to grow up and be just

  • Word count: 384
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare and Contrast Digging and Follower.

Compare and Contrast Digging and Follower. In "Digging" country life is portrayed in a slightly different way to "Follower". The skill Heaney's father uses is focused on in the poem Digging, and also the theme of relationships on the farm, how his father seemed to have a bond or some type of relationship with the farm is brought back in. Heaney's father had great skill when it came to digging, "Stooping in rhythm through potato drills". This shows the reader that country life is not as easy as one may think, and even to work on a farm you need to have quite a lot of skill. This conjures up an image of his father not only digging, but doing it with immense skill, which is not something we would associate with a job like that and like Heaney we are more in awe of his father because of this. Digging is also about the admiration and respect that Heaney had for his father. The words such as "Straining" show that his father worked very hard, as he did not break very often because he "stooped in rhythm". In "Follower" this is also the case. In the second verse he describes his father as "an expert". This shows a huge amount of respect. It is these words, which conjure up such image of Heaney's father never stopping unless he has finished a job, this image helps us to understand the young boy's admiration for his father. Country life is therefore seen as difficult, but there are

  • Word count: 708
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare 'Digging' and 'Follower' by Seamus Heany

. Compare the ways in which 'Follower' and 'Digging' explore the theme of changes due to passing time Both 'Follower' and 'Digging' explore the theme of changes due to passing time. 'Follower' begins in the past tense, which demonstrates Heaney looking back into his past; whereas 'Digging' begins in the present tense, which suggests he is looking at his current situation whilst reflecting on memories and childhood experiences. The title 'Digging' explores the theme of changes due to passing time, as Heaney knows that he has no spade to follow men like his father and grandfather-he is a writer, not a farmer so will dig with his pen. Throughout the poem, Heaney draws close emphasis to childhood experiences, detailing sensory images, which suggest that these memories are important to him as he remembers them so clearly. Therefore, this suggests that the idea of 'digging' represents Heaney digging though his past and him digging into the English language to say and express what he wants to say, as words are now his tool. Heaney uses change in tense in 'Follower' to indicate his change in views and ideas. When he remembers about his father and grandfather at work he goes into the past tense but the last two stanzas return to the present. This suggests that his life on the farm as a child is in his past and he has a new life. He doesn't want to 'handle the spade' like his

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  • Word count: 762
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare and contrast the poems "Digging" and "Follower".

Seamus Heaney Compare and contrast the poems "Digging" and "Follower". Seamus Heaney was born on the 13th of April 1939 in County Derry Northern Ireland. He began to write from Phillip Hobsbaum advice. He married Marie Devlin in 1965. His first published work was a poetry book called Death of a naturalist Both Digging and Follower are nostalgic poem, which express Heaney's childhood memories and experiences. Both of these poems use a simple language, this makes it easy for the reader to understand and relate to. He expresses it both in an adult and a child point of view. Both Digging and Follower have ambiguous meanings. 'Digging' has ambiguous meaning of his father and his grandfather digging and a meaning of himself digging as well, but he is metaphorically digging into his mind. 'Follower' have ambiguous meaning of Heaney following his father when he was young and his father following him when he is old. 'Follower' is a poem which has a regular rhyming scheme for example "strung" rhymes with "tongue", "round" rhymes with "ground" and so on. Unlike Follower, Digging has an irregular rhyming scheme, apart from verse one and two the others are all blank verses. In the beginning of both poems Heaney is showing the professionalism of a writer in Digging and a farmer in Follower "Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests: snug as a gun", "His shoulders globed like

  • Word count: 708
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare And Contrast Seamus Heaney's Poems 'Digging' And 'Follower'.

Compare And Contrast Seamus Heaney's Poems 'Digging' And 'Follower' Seamus Heaney's poems, 'Digging' and 'Follower' portray to us the strong relationship between the father and son, as Heaney tends to look up to the elders in his family. Both poems create that pastoral atmosphere with the title, 'Digging' suggests delving into the past. 'Follower' on the other hand gives us an image of the child's view of farming. The poems suggest Heaney's father is skilled at manual labour, and therefore someone to be looked up to. The poem 'Follower' illustrates the strength and skill, possessed by Heaney's father. The poem 'Digging' suggests the immense skill needed to master working in the countryside. The rhythm in 'Digging' tends to match the digging of the spade; where as in 'Follower' it tends to match the size and supremacy of Heaney's father. Both 'Digging' and 'Follower' tell us stories, which are similar but yet different. This poem 'Digging' is quite similar to 'Follower' as it shows how young Heaney looked up to his elders. Heaney sees his grandfather as old, "straining" to dig "flowerbeds". The poet recalls his father digging "potato drills" and his grandfather digging peat. Heaney knows he can't match "men like them with a spade," knowing the pen is mightier for him, and he will dig into the past with it. Heaney also shows the skill and distinction needed in manual

  • Word count: 2417
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare And Contrast Seamus Heaney's Poems 'Digging' And 'Follower'.

Compare And Contrast Seamus Heaney's Poems 'Digging' And 'Follower' Seamus Heaney's poems, 'Digging' and 'Follower' portray to us the strong relationship between the father and son, as Heaney tends to look up to the elders in his family. Both poems create that pastoral type of atmosphere with the title, 'Digging' suggesting to us digging into the past. 'Follower' on the other hand gives us the image of the child's view of farming of imitating his father's actions. The poems suggest the perfection of Heaney's father at manual labour, introducing someone for Heaney to look up to and admire. The poem 'Follower' illustrates to us the strength and skill, which is processed in Heaney's father. The poem 'Digging' suggests to us the great amount of immense skill needed to master working in the fields of the countryside. Both 'Digging' and 'Follower' tell us stories, which are similar and different in many ways. This poem 'Digging' is quite similar to 'Follower' as it shows how young Heaney looked up to his elders but in this poem he looks up to both his father and grandfather. Heaney sees his grandfather as now old, "straining" to dig "flowerbeds". The poet recalls to himself of his father digging "potato drills" and even earlier his grandfather digging peat. Heaney knows he can't match "men like them with a spade," knowing the pen is mightier for him, and he will dig

  • Word count: 1985
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Follower and Digging

Follower and Digging Heaney was born on April 13 1939. He was the eldest of nine children. Heaney lived on the family farm, Mossbawn, about thirty miles northwest of Belfast, in County Derry. Heaney is Irish because of this the conflict in Northern Ireland is almost always a backdrop to his work. Here we will analyse 2 poems by Seamus Heaney called "Digging" and "Follower". We will look at the similarities and differences between these poems. In both these poems Heaney puts emphasis on many subjects related to his life such as his childhood memories of growing up in Northern Ireland and the conflict there. His father also features strongly in both poems as a main influence on his life. The poem 'Digging' was written by Seamus in 1964 and was one of the first poems he wrote. This poem is about a man looking down on his father digging in the garden both now and in the past. He reminisces about moments in the past of both his father and grandfather digging potatoes. When the poem 'Digging' begins Heaney is not doing anything. It seems as if he is waiting for inspiration. In the second line, there is a strange simile; "The squat pen rests; snug as a gun". This is strange because "snug" is a comfortable word which suggests he is comfortable with his writing, but gun is a powerful and dangerous. In many ways words are powerful especially in hands of those who can use them well,

  • Word count: 718
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Compare the ways in which Heaney presents family feelings in 'Digging' and 'Follower'

Compare the ways in which Heaney presents family feelings in 'Digging' and 'Follower' 'Digging' and 'Follower' by Seamus Heaney both gives an insight into generational changes. 'Digging' describes how 'digging' has become a family tradition, from his grandfather digging peat who "cut more turf in a day/ Than any other man on Toner's bog", which shows that he is a hardworking man, to his father digging flowerbeds. He shows that he is going to carry on the 'digging' tradition with his "squat pen", unlike the traditional spade. In 'Follower', the poem is mainly based on his father and him. It shows how he used to follow his father literally and metaphorically "All I ever did was follow" until slowly their positions are reversed until it is his "father who keeps stumbling/ Behind", this is very ironic as it shows how such a strong man who inspires others could stumble behind his own son. 'Follower' shows that he is maintaining the tradition of horse ploughing unlike in 'Digging', where he describes about the first alteration of his family tradition. We have a hint of this presence as 'Follower' is written in regular four-line stanzas, which could represent a trend like the tradition of horse-ploughing, unlike 'Digging' which the stanzas have different amount of lines. This image gives an impression that 'Digging' has something irregular happening, or a broken trend, like Heaney

  • Word count: 1576
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Comparing Follower and Digging by Seamus Heany

Comparing ' Follower ' and ' Digging ' The title ' Follower ' intrigues curiosity for what the poem is about, and what is doing the following. This poem, the ' Follower ', is about the writer looking up to his father whilst he ploughs some land, and how the roles have changed. The title ' Digging ' is quite plain, and unusual for a poem, which in a way would intrigue the reader to see what the poem was about. ' Digging ' is about the writer looking out of his window and seeing his father digging, then reminiscing about his grandfather digging. Both these titles intrigue the reader, because they are one word titles. The ' Follower ' contains imagery that use the writer's perspective as a child, like referring to his father's shoulders as ' a full said strung between the shafts and the furrow '. This might have been because as a young child he would have seen his dad's shoulders as being very broad and triangular, however it's not really an insult, more of a compliment as he looks up to his father. In ' Digging ' the writer looks up to his father by saying ' by God, the old man could handle a spade '. Although this is colloquial language, it sort of shows the tradition of handling a spade throughout his family's generations. So in both poems the writer looks up to his father. In the ' Follower ' the writer wants to be able to plough a field - ' I wanted to grow up and

  • Word count: 701
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Follower and Digging - Seamus Heaney.

Follower and Digging Seamus Heaney There are many similarities between the two poems. First of all, both poems are written in the same tone. Heaney talks about his father and grandfather with a great deal of admiration and pride. In 'Follower' he calls his father 'An expert' and tells how he used to imitate his father, and wished to grow up to be just like him. In 'Digging' Heaney compliments his father and grandfather with; 'By God, the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man.' He respects them, looks up to them and wants to follow in their footsteps. Both poems are set in a rural background and talk about working on the land and doing manual work. Heaney uses carefully chosen words to show that his father and grandfather are skilled in their professions such as 'Narrowed and Angled' in 'Follower' and 'Nicking and slicing neatly' in 'Digging' which all suggest very precise movements. This poem is about the reversal of roles between father and son through life and Heaney ends the poem with 'But today It is my father who keeps stumbling Behind me, and will not go away' And I think this is meant in the same fondness as his father had for him when he was younger. He is now looking out for his father. This poem is also about the relationships between generations and the fondness they have for each other. In 'Follower', Heaney uses different poetic devices

  • Word count: 565
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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