Compare and contrast Digging and Follower by Seamus Heaney. Which is the most successful poem in your opinion.

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Compare and contrast “Digging” and “Follower” by Seamus Heaney. Which is the most successful poem in your opinion.

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.

We will be analysing the two poems form and content. The content of the poems reveals much about Heaney's life and by comparing the form and content of the two poems, we can uncover much about Heaney's feelings and style of writing.

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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. This is a family tradition, however one that he can not continue with in the literal sense, but by writing poems and “digging” with his pen, he continues the tradition.

“Follower”, was written later than “Digging” and in many ways follows on from ...

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