This poem is about the reversal of roles between father and son through life and Heaney ends the poem with
‘But today
It is my father who keeps stumbling
Behind me, and will not go away’
And I think this is meant in the same fondness as his father had for him when he was younger. He is now looking out for his father. This poem is also about the relationships between generations and the fondness they have for each other.
In ‘Follower’, Heaney uses different poetic devices such as onomatopoeia as he describes his father’s ‘clicking’ tongue. This makes the reader imagine that they can really hear the clicking sound. He also uses similes when he says ‘His shoulders globed like a full sail strung’, which implies his father’s back is broad and muscular.
The poet mentions ‘he rode me on his back’, which suggests his closeness to his father and being at one with him. When Heaney talks about ‘the sod rolled over without breaking’ you can almost visualise the action. The stanzas in ‘Follower’ are consistent and every two lines, there is almost a rhyming pattern, for example ‘arm’ and ‘farm’ or ‘today’ and ‘away’.
‘Digging’ is a poem about tradition and it seems as though Heaney’s father was only digging because it was the family tradition and not because he had chosen to. At the end of the poem Heaney says
‘Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.’
As if to say, this is the path that he has chosen and he is digging in his own way. He is digging into the past with his pen and digging into the future.
‘Digging’ starts with Heaney telling us that he feels comfortable with a pen. He goes on to talk about his father with pride and seems unsure of himself. The poet’s tone seems more confident towards the end of the poem as if remembering the memories have given him courage to dig with his pen.
Heaney uses alliteration to help the reader visualise a movement or hear a sound, for example ‘gravely ground’ and ‘curt cuts’. He also uses onomatopoeia which has a similar effect on the reader when he says ‘squelch’ and ‘slap’. Metaphors are used, such as ‘bends low, comes up twenty years away’ to describe his father and they create a vivid picture.
