A comparison between Seamus Heaney's

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Mark Haigh – 11e – English

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In both the poems “Digging” by Seamus Heaney and “Catrin” by Gillian Clarke the main theme is that of parent child relationships. “Catrin” relates to the inner thoughts and feelings of a mother giving birth whilst “Digging” shows a son’s admiration for his father.

In “Catrin” we first see the title, one that could possibly be addressed to a real daughter or exploring the relationships between mother and daughter in general, whereas “Digging” simply states the subject matter.

In “Catrin” the author is initially quite cold and impersonal as she addresses child before birth, waiting for her arrival; “As I stood in a hot, white room at the window watching”, possibly showing this as being her first child, so she is unsure of what to expect, and unsure of her feeling towards the child. This phrase seems very clinical and resembles a hospital ward.

However from the very beginning of “Digging” we are greeted with warmth in the form of assonance such as the words “snug as a gun”, which in addition are references to the way a gun is crafted for a person, so also the pen (and thus poetry) is perfect for Heaney, or vice versa.

These comforting semantics are built upon with words such as “clean” and the sibilance; “spade sinks” and alliteration; “gravely ground.” These phrases just roll of the tongue, easy top speak so easy to accept.

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By contrast Clarke has begun to create a semantic field of violent pain, with words such as the alliterated “first fierce confrontation” harsh sounding repetition used here to grate roughly on the reader. Then the highly wrought emotion are brought into play as can be seen when Clarke writes “Red rope of love”, a reference to the umbilical cord to affirm suspicions of the poems subject matter, but also using the symbolic representation of the colour red, conjuring up images of pain, blood and dying.

Heaney now moves on to describe his fathers efficiency by introducing words such as “rhythm”, ...

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The Quality of Written Communication (QWC) is fine. There are moments where comma splice is used, but not so much that it becomes obvious the candidate does not know how use punctuation properly. A wider range of more complex punctuation may have improved the perceived confidence of the candidate, but other than that there is a very sound understanding of QWC.

The Level of Analysis shown by this candidate is broad and as such, the candidate comments to a relatively shallow depth on all points made. As the saying goes: Quality, not Quantity. This candidate comments on a range of features and poetic devices in both poems, but in most cases there is not enough detail evident. For example: "These comforting semantics are built upon with words such as “clean” and the sibilance; “spade sinks” and alliteration; “gravely ground.” These phrases just roll of the tongue, easy top speak so easy to accept. (sic)". The explanation bolted hastily onto the end of the analysis is not at all convincing. The candidate should go on to say how the relaxing, soft velar plosives (consonant sounds) creating a peace and harmony in the reader, as Heaney felt with his father and the land. But then later on, when Heaney's attention is diverted from his father's digging ability, he does not use such sound effects and instead swaps it for a direct address of the reader, creating the realisation that he did not want to continue with his family's occupation - a very unconventional decision for a son at the time (especially in an predominantly agricultural country like Ireland). This continued analysis and integration of contextual appreciation is what really wins the marks. Go for gold, and squeeze every last bit out of the poems you study.

The candidate here has responded well to a question that asks of the presentation of the themes in Seamus Heaney's 'Digging' and one other poem from the AQA Anthology. This candidate has wisely chosen 'Catrin' by Gillian Clarke, which lends itself nicely to the prescribed poem. The answer is well-focused though in some places the analysis is attempted but only scratches the surface, and thus some moments have the potential to cement this candidate an A grade for GCSE considering the level of detail they would otherwise provide, but as it seems the depth of commentary required is missing in some cases, the answer is only up to a B grade standard - no easy feat either, so this answer is still a great success.