The first line of the fourth stanza also implies that his father was very professional by using technical words such as “lug” and “shaft” and then again in the second line; “levered firmly”. In the last line of this stanza, tactile imagery is used. It reads “loving their cool hardness in our hands”
The fifth stanza is only two lines long, and is said in a rather conversational tone; as if Seamus Heaney is speaking it in a general conversation. It isn’t like a poem at all. It says “By god the old man could handle a spade”. He is boasting here, like a child in a playground. It conveys a boastful, bragging tone. “Just like his old man” sets in motion the chain of memory.
The sixth stanza starts of in the same boastful tone as the fifth stanza was. “My grandfather cut more turf in a day, than any other man on Toner’s bog”. This is also said in a conversational tone. He seems very proud of his grandfather, just like he does his father. His grandfather must have been good at his job. He then contrasts his grandfather’s work, by explaining of how he carried in a bottle of milk to his grandfather once, “corked sloppily with paper”. It seems as if he doesn’t feel that he is as good as if father and grandfather were.
Once again, in the seventh stanza, the word “digging” is repeated to reinforce the idea of the metaphorical and literal meaning.
The eighth stanza contains a lot the senses. This intensifies the effect because we can almost hear the sounds. The first sense is “The cold smell of potato mould” and then onomatopoeia is used by saying “squelch” and “slap” and then the word “soggy”. This is also alliteration, which reinforces the “S” sound. Alliteration is used once again, on the same line. “Curt cuts” is said. These are hard sounding consonants which reflect the sound of a spade going through roots. He uses the word “roots” which instead of having a literal meaning, he uses it with the metaphorical meaning for his back round/past. Heaney then explicitly states that he is not good enough to be like them. “But I’ve no spade to follow men like them” by saying “men like them” he implies that he admires the two men and that he isn’t as superior as them. He feels inferior to them. He sounds slightly regretful in this sentence.
In the last stanza, it is as if he has gone around in a circle. He says, as he does in the first stanza, how the “squat pen rests”. He then says that he will dig with the pen. I don’t think he means this literally. There are a few meanings that there could be, that I have come up with for him saying this. He could mean that he will be “digging” for ideas – exploring. Also, there is a possibility that he means he will dig into the past, like he has done in the poem. It could have a simple meaning, like he will write with the pen, although I think the meaning stretches far beyond just simply writing with the pen. This time he uses the word digging, he means it in a different way from the “digging” he talks about throughout the poem. The last stanza ends very optimistically and upbeat/cheerful.
In conclusion, I found this poem a very interesting poem to read. I thoroughly enjoyed studying it. I found it interesting looking for meanings as to what was said in the poem, and found that the meaning of some lines were more than just what was stated. There is a deep meaning to almost every line and verse.
Rosanna Jones. 10m. English coursework.
Task: Examine two poems, “Digging” and “Follower” by Seamus Heaney and then compare the poems, explaining both their differences and similarities.
The second poem I am going to examine is “Follower” by Seamus Heaney. I will examine each stanza, and point out any similarities or differences to “Digging”. I will first comment on the title of the poem. It is a metaphor; the boy follows his father around in the poem, like a sheep, but at the end, it is the opposite.
This poem is constant throughout. It has four lines to each stanza, and has a constant rhyme scheme which is: 1st and 3rd lines rhyme and the 2nd and 4th lines rhyme, although they sometimes just half rhyme.
Firstly, I am going to examine the first stanza. Just like in "Digging" this poem is connected with farming to the second line of the first stanza there is a simile, comparing Heaney’s father to a sailing ship; wind catching his shirt. This makes his father seem powerful and impressive. The simile is “His shoulder globed like a full sail strung”. I find this simile very effective as it makes his father seem dominating. He seems powerful, and I think that Heaney feels that he is, because of the way he spoke of him in "Digging". In the last line, Seamus Heaney states that “the horses strained at his clicking tongue” and this shows that his father is in control; he is implicitly boasting once again about his father; as he did in "Digging".
In the second stanza Heaney explicitly states that his father is an expert. He uses technical language to impress us and reinforce the idea that his father was an expert. He uses words like “wing”, “steel-pointed sock” and “headrig”. The fact that the “sod rolled over without breaking” also reinforces the idea of his father being an expert.
The second stanza does not complete the last sentence, but lets it run into the third stanza, pausing. The pause/gap conveys the horses turning around. The word “sweating” shows that hard work is being put into the job. The simile comparing his father to a sailing ship extends, as now, in the third stanza, Heaney says “mapping the furrow exactly”. This also gives the impression that Heaney’s father was a perfectionist and had a high level of concentration.
In the fourth stanza, the idea of the sailing ship extends yet again due to “wake” and “dipping and rising being said. In this stanza, Seamus Heaney implies that he is clumsy and gets in the way; he “stumbled” and “fell sometimes”. He does this in "Digging" as well, with the bottle of milk that he took to his grandfather. He implies that he is clumsy and inferior as well. Heaney says that his father “sometimes rode him on his back” which makes us like the father. He seems very understanding that the boy was clumsy and, like in "Digging", we are wanted to admire Heaney’s father.
I will now study the fifth stanza. “I wanted to grow up and plough” is the first line; he explicitly states that he wanted to have the same job as his father, whereas in "Digging", he only implied that and made us feel as if he did. He was obviously in awe with his father and admired him very much so. By saying “all I ever did was follow”, which he says in the 3rd line of the fifth stanza, he makes out that he felt inferior and inadequate and he sounds regretful. He describes his father’s shadow as “bold”, which shows that his father was in charge and that he was looked up to.
The last stanza, the sixth one, is rather pessimistic. I found this stanza quite interesting. Heaney calls himself a nuisance, which is pessimistic; he’s putting himself down. He reinforces the idea that he is clumsy and gets in the way by saying “tripping and falling, yapping always”. Also, by saying “yapping”, we get the image if an annoying little dog in our minds. The last sentence; “But today it is my father who keeps stumbling behind me, and will not go away.” I found this ending pessimistic and almost disturbing. It’s depressing and puts a downer on the poem. The poem is about how great his father is, and then ends bluntly; by saying Heaney is a nuisance. I found it unexpected. I think that it may mean that his back round wont go away and he feeds his writing by his past. It could also mean that his father is now old and feeble. Whichever this may be, it is a very ironic ending. The pessimistic ending is much unlike that of "Digging", which ended optimistically.
I found this poem hard to understand at first, but then I looked between the lines, and, like "Digging", I found it really interesting and deep/meaningful. I rather digging though, I found it a more interesting and optimistic poem. Though, I did really like the last stanza of “Follower”; I found it very effective. But I also did with "Digging". Overall, I enjoyed both poems thoroughly and would like to look at more of Seamus Heaney’s work.
