Choose two or more poems by Seamus Heaney. Write an informed and personal response to these poems in which you compare their subject matter and its awareness of the poet's use of language and poetic devices. Refer to the poems to support your viewpoints!

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Choose two or more poems by Seamus Heaney.  Write an informed and personal response to these poems in which you compare their subject matter and its awareness of the poet’s use of language and poetic devices.   Refer to the poems to support your viewpoints!


I have chosen to compare and contrast “Follower” and “Digging” by the poet Seamus Heaney, a local man from the town of Bellaghy in County Derry.  I selectively chose these two poems for they are very visual and are both related to each other.  

The poem “Follower” consists of six quatrains with regular versification and an alternate rhyme scheme which creates a very solid structure. It is about Seamus Heaney as a young boy and about his relationship with him and his father.

“My father worked with a horse-plough

is the introductory line of the first stanza of the poem, “Follower.”  This simple opening line portrays what the poem is about – Seamus Heaney’s father.  This line is immediately clear and is therefore straightforward.  The use of the title “My Father….” suggests the poet is proud of his father and this formal title reflects the son’s admiration.

The following line goes on to describe his father ploughing,

“His shoulders globed like a full sail strung

 

In this line Heaney uses figurative language to clarify the physical description of his father. One is a metaphor in the use of the verb “globed” describing the way he is bent over, working the plough. The other is a simile (“like a full sail strung”) comparing his father’s stature to a sail on a ship catching the wind. This could also be implying that his shirt could have been blowing in the wind.  The sibilant sounds underlined above give greater rhythm to the line therefore improving the description.

Again Heaney addresses his father in a positive way,

 “An expert.”

This again conveys the pride Seamus Heaney had for his father. “An expert” also suggests that his father was a master at ploughing and romanticises about his father’s ability as a farmer.  The full stop after “An expert.” conjures the fact that Seamus Heaney’s father was very skilful at ploughing. – there is no argument, that is a fact!

Heaney continues to comment on the skill of ploughing,

“He would set the wing and fit the bright steel-pointed sock”

The words “wing… steel-pointed sock” are all words associated with ploughing and help to make the scene more realistic.  

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“The soil rolled over without breaking.”

Is very graphic as you can almost imagine the plough cutting through the soil, very slowly and carefully, not breaking the fresh sod. This sentence is very descriptive and expressive as it expresses just how good his father was at ploughing by not one single break in the soil.

The father’s skill continues to be praised by his son,

“With a single pluck

Of the reins, the sweating team turned round

And back into land”

This shows that Heaney’s father had complete control of the horses.  The words “Single ...

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