Compare And Contrast Seamus Heaneys Poems Digging And Follower Essay Example For Students

Compare And Contrast Seamus Heaneys Poems Digging And Follower Essay Seamus Heaneys poems, Digging and Follower portray to us the strong relationship between the father and son, as Heaney tends to look up to the elders in his family. Both poems create that pastoral type of atmosphere with the title, Digging suggesting to us digging into the past. Follower on the other hand gives us the image of the childs view of farming of imitating his fathers actions. The poems suggest the perfection of Heaneys father at manual labour, introducing someone for Heaney to look up to and admire. The poem Follower illustrates to us the strength and skill, which is processed in Heaneys father. The poem Digging suggests to us the great amount of immense skill needed to master working in the fields of the countryside. Both Digging and Follower tell us stories, which are similar and different in many ways. This poem Digging is quite similar to Follower as it shows how young Heaney looked up to his elders but in this poem he looks up to both his father and grandfather. Heaney sees his grandfather as now old, straining to dig flowerbeds. The poet recalls to himself of his father digging potato drills and even earlier his grandfather digging peat. Heaney knows he cant match men like them with a spade, knowing the pen is mightier for him, and he will dig into the past with it. Heaney also shows the skill and distinction needed in manual labour. The poet also illustrates to us their sense of work, as the father still digs in old age, and the grandfather, when working, would barely stop to drink. In the poem Follower it shows the skill involved in country life including being an expert, without breaking. This shows us what an accomplished farmer Heaneys father is. It also shows us the country life, by illustrating how much skill goes into a seemingly ordinary task such as ploughing a field. The sod rolled over without breaking doesnt only illustrate the skill in the country but the beauty as well. The idea of freshly ploughed soil, adds to the readers view of the country side as a beautiful place and so country life is also portrayed as something happy. Digging and Follower differ in their structures as Digging consists of a much looser structure than Follower. The first stanza consists of two lines, the second stanza consists of three lines and the third stanza consists of four lines. So the lengths of the stanzas in Digging vary quite a bit compared to the Follower. There is rhyme present in both poems but it is more frequent and powerful in Follower than Digging. Heres the rhyme in Digging, flowerbeds / away / drills / digging, and heres in Follower, round / eye / ground / exactly. In Digging, the first two stanzas have powerful rhyme but for the rest of the poem it simply dies out. Some of the rhyme words used are, sound / ground / down, suggesting strong rhyme. Generally the rhyme scheme used in Follower is ABAB meaning the first line rhymes with the third. In Digging the rhyme scheme in the beginning is AA BBB, but then the rhyme kind of dies out since not all the poem rhymes. Both Follower and Digging tend to use more of half rhyme rather than full rhyme, which doesnt make it intrusively obvious. The rhyme in both poems tends to give us a sense of rhythm to the poem. In other words it also emphasises the rhyme words bringing to us the connection between the rhyme words. Heaney uses more rhyme in Follower than in Digging because it gives a natural feeling to the poem and also helps in emphasising the fathers skill. In Digging there are some stressed and unstressed syllable words. Some of the stressed words are, Between finger thumb / squat pen rests snug gun. The words that are unstressed in that stanza are, my and my / the as a. In Follower some of the stressed syllables are, shoulders globed full sail strung, and some of the unstressed ones are, His like a. There are a variety of familiar poetic techniques used by Heaney in Digging and Follower. Assignment Poetry EssayIn both poems it is also shown the failures of the son not living up to his fathers examples, not continuing the family root, like old man could handle a spade / like his old man. This suggests that his grandfather and father dug, which has become like a family tradition, which is a metaphor as it is his familys in touch with the land. In Follower as well the son failed to follow the fathers example, as said, all I ever did was follow / nuisance, tripping. There is also a role reversal in Follower towards the end, when it isnt Heaney letting his father down but is in fact his father, my father keeps stumbling / will not go away. That type of role reversal, where the father is growing old doesnt happen in Digging making it a difference between the two poems. One of the differences between Digging and Follower is the fact that Follower uses a lot of figurative language like, globed. In both poems the son shows a lot of aspiration in both poems, for example, I ever did was follow / in his broad shadow round the farm, and in Digging, scatter new potatoes e picked / loving cool hardness in our hands. These examples from both poems tell us that he did show hope towards following his fathers life, but they simply couldnt do it anymore. They claimed that they didnt have the sort of talent their parents or grandfather did for this particular type of work. In Follower you would find two word sentences where as in Digging there none in sight. An expert, is the small phrase used Heaney which stands out due to being in the beginning of the second stanza and simply being only two words. The period after the two short words makes them stand out as something rather important. That two word sentence is like a subtitle gives us a hint of what the stanza is likely to be about. This one word sentence suggests to us that it is simply a fact Heaney grew up with and this idea of expertise makes it seem important. In the last sentence of the poem it begins with But, which should really only ever be used in the middle of a sentence. The use of this word suggests to us how significant Heaney sees this word to be, showing us how big the change has been, between the time he let his father down and when his father let him down. In Follower there is a pause between the single pluck and the explanation of what is being plucked. That helps us at the idea that such a small movement could have such a dramatic effect a single pluck // of reins, the sweating team turned around / and back into the land. His eye at an end of a line helps us feel the intensity and power of the gaze being described. Follower consists of six stanzas each consisting of about four lines. On the other hand Digging consists of nine stanzas of each containing different numbers of lines. Follower for example with a consistent number of lines keeps the poem flowing and helps the rhythm of the poem. Digging on the other hand doesnt has a specific layout which disrupts the flow of the poem slightly, and it also makes it slightly harder to read as well. I can come to the conclusion that both poems clearly show a great deal of similarities and differences, and both well written pieces give us a strong sense of the pastoral side of the world. Not to forget it shows us the strongly linked relationship between the father and the son and they way the son looks up to his father as a role model.