In “Follower”, the father works with a horse plough. The start of the poem is different from “Digging”, as it starts already looking at the past, with no introduction. The words “horse plough” show us this is not a poem set in modern times. Seamus Heaney talks again of the strain that the father and the horses he guided felt. He says, “the sweating team turned round”. In this poem Heaney does not use as many onomatopoeic words as in “Digging”. Also, some lines flow into other, which breaks up the rhythm of the poem.
Although both poems are set in the past, they begin very differently. “Follower” starts by referring to past events. “Digging” begins with the character in the poem, probably Heaney himself, thinking of what to write when he hears his father digging. He then starts to remember his father and grandfather working on the land.
In the first verse of “Follower”, we start off by reading about the strain his father and the horses he worked felt; “His shoulders globed like a full sail strung … the horses strained at his clicking tongue”. However, in “Digging”, the first verse is set in the character’s room where he is writing. The second verse of “Digging” talks of the father’s “straining rump among the flowerbeds”, as his son looks out of the window. Heaney then uses a clever metaphor to take us back into the past, “bends low, comes up twenty years away”. This conveys a strong sense of remembrance, and clearly shows the son’s state of mind. This verse is similar to the first verse of “Follower” in the way they both depict the strain on the fathers as they work at their manual labour.
In both poems, the author portrays a strong sense of the sons’ admiration of their fathers. In “Follower” the writer refers to his father as an “expert” and in “Digging” he says, “By God the old man could handle a spade”.
Both poems are based on the character’s admiration for his father, although the endings are quite different. We are led to believe that both fathers respected their equipment and went to considerable lengths to look after it, in order to prolong its life and help them to work efficiently. In “Digging”, we are told,
“He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep”.
The writer is describing helping to pick new potatoes, which shows a sense of companionship with his father.
In “Follower”, the same effect is produced by the following lines,
“An expert. He would set the wing
And fit the bright steel-pointed sock.”
The poem “Digging” moves on to describe the grandfather’s skill with a spade. Heaney says, “By God the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man”. By referring to his father as “the old man”, the writer projects a sense of endearment.
The son in “Digging” talks about the grandfather with the same admiration as he does about his father. He uses many onomatopoeic words like “nicking and slicing” to take us back and to help us imagine what it was like to watch his grandfather digging. In “Follower” the onomatopoeic word “plod” is used to convey the slow steady walk of the father behind the horse plough.
In “Follower” the end approaches gradually from the third verse, but in “Digging” the end of the poem is quite sudden. The endings, apart from their structure, and that they are both sad and moving, are very different. In “Follower” the son tells us that he used to follow his father and “wanted to grow up and plough”. He used to be “a nuisance, tripping, falling. Yapping always”. In a lighthearted way, this helps us understand his respect for his father. However, in the last few lines, we are moved when Heaney says:
“………………………….. But today
It is my father who keeps stumbling
Behind me, and will not go away.”
By saying this, we can see that the writer does not resent his father, but feels sad at the inevitability of growing old and the sense of role reversal.
He is sad that he is no longer able to admire his father as he did when he was a young boy.
The son in “Digging” is sad because he has “no spade to follow men like them”. Although he is upset that he does not share his father and grandfather’s talent, in the last verse he shows that he accepts his life is different from theirs, and that his expertise is in writing rather than digging. He says,
“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.”