The father, even through fatigue and exhaustion, sometimes lets Heaney ride on his back. ‘Dipping and rising to his plod,’ makes the reader picture a mighty horse with a little boy bouncing up and down in rhythm with the horses stride. When Heaney was a child he wanted to be a ploughman. ‘I wanted to grow up and plough.’ This tells the reader that Heaney admired his father for his plough. He wants to plough like his father. He wants to use the skills he has acquired from observing his father, ‘close one eye.’ This tells the reader how the father ploughs so accurately and how he manages to line the plough up perfectly.
Heaney could not wait for the day when he didn’t have to follow, but could actually do the work himself. The descriptive phrase, ‘in his broad shadow around the farm,’ depicts how close he follows his father. It expresses how large the father’s shadow is, which engulfs Heaney. Heaney viewed himself as a ‘nuisance,’ when he was a child. He didn’t help much, but followed his father around. He describes himself as always, ‘tripping, falling and yapping,’ which creates a vivid picture in the readers mind of an excited child, who is thankful that his father allows him to plough with him. So he tries desperately hard to keep up, but just gets in the way.
The use of the word ‘yapping’ creates a picture of the little boy’s voice sounding like a small dog’s high pitched barking. Yapping is saying nothing in particular. This emphasizes that Heaney viewed himself as an annoyance to his father. This also tells the reader that Heaney was like a small dog following his master. Heaney informs us of how he views their relationship to have changed in the lines, ‘it is my father who keeps stumbling, behind me and will not go away.’ This is the turning point from Heaney’s view of himself as a child to the introduction of his perspective as an adult. This tells the reader how the roles have been reversed and it is Heaney who now feels frustration with his father. This makes the reader think of a stubborn old man who will not admit he is too old. It is now the frail, old father who cannot keep up with Heaney. This emphasizes that they have swapped places and it is now the father who stumbles along behind Heaney. Heaney has no control over this because cannot simply tell his father to go away.
The poem ‘Follower’ tells us about Heaney’s admiration for his father and how when he was a child he wanted to grow up to plough just like him. He observes how his father tends to the farm, but how Heaney is never allowed to do much. He cannot wait for the day when he is old enough to work the farm, the way he has watched his father do. At the end of ‘Follower,’ Heaney explains how his relationship with his father has changed, and the roles have been reversed. The overall mood of the poem is very reflective because it is written in the past tense. It describes the admiration for his father’s farming skills and Heaney’s feelings of inadequacy as a farmer. The verse structure of ‘Follower’ is a regular methodical pattern and consists of six, four line stanzas. There is an even a b a b rhyming scheme, which is especially notable when read aloud. This reflects the father’s precision and rhythm of working on the farm.
In the poem ‘Digging’, Seamus Heaney the poet looks back at his childhood. He tries to make better sense of events which took place in his past, from an adult’s perspective. He relives scenes from his childhood, recalling sounds and smells which he had forgotten. These are brought alive in his memory once again, by describing his father digging flowerbeds. He uses the image of digging to explain how, by looking through his past, he can dig up his roots to discover who he is. ‘Digging,’ has a much looser structure because the stanzas are uneven in length and there is no regular rhyming scheme. This perhaps reflects to the reader how things have changed, because Seamus has ‘broken the mold.’
The poet uses the simile ‘snug as a gun,’ to describe how his, ‘squat pen rests.’ This tells the reader about how Heaney feels comfortable with his pen in his hand. The way he compares his pen to a spade emphasizes that he feels writing is as important as working on a farm. It also describes to the reader that the pen is powerful like a gun. It is strong and could kill, which is compared to how writing something nasty about a person could cause hurt to their feelings. This rhyming couplet expresses a more confident and optimistic mood, than in the poem, ‘Follower.’
The onomatopoeia in the third line creates a vivid picture in the readers mind; about the sounds Heaney would hear as his father dug up potatoes. ‘A clean rasping sound,’ as the stones in the soil slice against the iron of the spade. This makes Heaney remember the way his father used to be, now that he is an old man. The use of alliteration in the fourth line, ‘gravelly ground,’ emphasizes the loud, sharp noise the father is making whilst he is digging. It also tells the reader about the condition of the soil.
In the next line Heaney uses the short sentence, ‘I look down.’ This emphasizes how Heaney’s view of his father has changed. Heaney is looking down on his father from the window as he recalls memories of his father digging. The first poem describes Heaney as a young boy, following his father around and looking up in admiration at him. This tells the reader that Heaney has distanced himself from his father and has accepted that he wants to go his own way in life. In the next verse Heaney describes his father digging, ‘straining rump among the flowerbeds.’ As he ‘bends low,’ to shovel the dirt, ‘he comes up twenty years away.’ This tells the reader that as Heaney describes his father digging he is recalling scenes from twenty years before. ‘Stooping in rhythm,’ conveys Heaney’s admiration for his fathers digging technique, which is ordered and kept to a steady pace.
The reader can tell that Heaney still admires his father’s skill at farming by the use of the word ‘nestled.’ He compares his fathers spade which is ‘nestled on the lug’, to his pen which is ‘snug’ in his hand. Heaney conveys the children’s triumph when they unearthed potatoes that their father had scattered for them to collect. This is shown in the phrase, ‘loving their cool hardness in our hands.’ This tells the reader that Heaney loved to pick out the potatoes from the soil and how he felt when he held them. This describes how the soil has looked after them and emphasizes a farmer’s thankfulness for good soil. Otherwise their whole way of life would be destroyed.
In comparison with the poem ‘Follower,’ the next verse continues to describe Heaney’s admiration for his father. ‘By God the old man could handle a spade just like his old man.’ This tells the reader that although technology had advanced greatly in the early Twentieth Century, traditional farming methods, which had been handed down for generations from a long line of ‘expert’ farmers, were still used on his father’s farm. This leads him to remember his Grandfather, ‘who cut more turf in a day, than any other man on Toner’s bog.’ This tells the reader that his Grandfather was second to no other man at digging. Heaney expresses his Grandfather’s enthusiasm and determination, when he describes the occasion when he took his Grandfather a bottle of milk. ‘He straightened up to drink it, then fell to right away.’ This tells the reader how hard his Grandfather worked. Since he would not even rest to have a drink, but would drink and carry on digging straight away.
In comparison with the poem ‘Follower,’ ‘Digging’ continues to show Heaney’s admiration for his father’s farming skills, even now that he is an adult. This is shown in the line, ‘nicking and slicing neatly.’ This tells the reader that Heaney’s father carefully used to dig turf into tidy pieces. Heaney can see a link between what he does and what his father and grandfather did. This is described in the phrase, going down and down for good turf.’ This tells the reader that Heaney is trying to remember further back into his past. This is emphasized by the repetition of the word, ‘down.’ It also creates a vivid image of digging deep into pitch blackness, which reminds the reader of blankness and forgotten memories. The use of the short sentence, ‘Digging,’ expresses memories which Heaney has preserved deep in his memory, and tries to remember.
Heaney conjures up the smell of potatoes and the sound and sensation of the spade cutting through peat, in the lines: ‘The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge.’ This tells the reader that by reliving all of these senses, ‘through living roots awaken in my head.’ He recovers memories which had been left behind. The line, ‘but I’ve no spade to follow men like them,’ shows how Heaney never felt he was any good at farming. He did not have the skills to dig, that the men before him did.
Seamus Heaney has used the repetition of the first and last verse. This suggests to the reader that what goes around comes. The younger generation cares for the older until the younger ones become the older generation. It describes how things are the same, but different. He still cares for his father but Heaney has not followed in the family footsteps as a farmer. The metaphor, ‘I’ll dig with it,’ doesn’t mean he will literally dig the soil with his pen, but means he can dig through his memories and write his thoughts and feelings down in poetic form. Looking back through his childhood memories he can see how his views have changed throughout his life. He can now make better sense and draw meaning from these, now he is an adult.
In Follower Heaney admired his father and wanted to be just like him, ‘I wanted to grow up and plough.’ He was always following his father around the farm. This differs from the poem ‘Digging’ because Heaney is now a poet, and has chosen his own path in life. He has decided not to follow the family tradition but now that he is an adult he wants to portray, how his life and feelings have developed in poetry. ‘Follower’ in a similar way to ‘Digging,’ both describes Heaney’s admiration for his father’s farming skills. However in Follower Heaney wants to be just like his father. This is different from Digging because Heaney has accepted and feels comfortable with himself as a writer. The only similarity between being a farmer and a poet is that Heaney digs up past memories and writes them down now that he is a poet. This is in comparison to his father digging the soil as a farmer.
The poem Follower gives me different ideas about his relationship with his father. At the beginning of Follower Heaney describes his father’s skill at farming and shows that when he was a little boy Heaney was always in the way of his father trying to work. Towards the end of the poem we find that the roles have been reversed and it is now Heaney who is frustrated with his father, who follows behind Heaney ‘and will not go away.’
I have greatly enjoyed reading the poems about Seamus Heaney’s memories and feelings. It has given me insight into a completely different way of life and culture. They describe to me events that I might have experienced growing up on a farm in Ireland. It suggests how men would follow their family’s tradition and follow in the footsteps of their father’s. The poems give us an insight into traditional farming ways, and Heaney’s early memories of farm life gave Heaney much to write about when he was an adult. Writing poetry allows Heaney to dig carefully through and examine the different layers of a mans lifespan. He wants readers to take pleasure from the way language is used even while they are being forced to think.
I preferred the poem ‘Digging’ because I admire the way Heaney chose to break the mould and follow his own path in life. He did this even though he was breaking the family tradition of generations of men who had become farmers.’ This reminds me of myself because when you are young you take on your parent’s views and listen to what they want you to do in life. I have realised that as I have grown up, I have broken away from my parent’s views and started to find out what I want in life. I have started to value my own morals and opinions and, just like Heaney, I have taken my own path.
The relationship Heaney had with his father as a child reminds me of memories I have, from when I was a young girl. The way his father picked up his son sometimes, even though he worked extremely hard, reminds me of when my dad used to take me walking in the woods. I would struggle to keep up because I only had short legs and tired very easily. So my dad would pick me up and sit me on his shoulders, where I would fall asleep. These memories of being looked after, even though at times I must have been very heavy, have led me to become a patient person. I admired my dad for having patience with me even though I was a pain at times. The way Heaney’s father would look after him as a child also reminds me of when my parents used to read stories to me. They would wrap me up in their arms and give me a big cuddle, which made me feel safe and loved.
Heaney’s admiration for his father, reminds me of how much I used to admire my dad. When we used to go walking on the sand banks in Liverpool; he could tell exactly what type of bird was in the trees, just by listening to its song. This taught me to treat the environment with respect and that even one tiny bird has an identity. I was fascinated by how he had all this knowledge of the countryside and wanted to grow up to love the countryside and appreciate it, just like him. I hoped one day, that I would be able to recognise what type of birds were around by the tune they make.
Rachel Burrow