An Analysis Of Follower And Digging, By Seamus Heaney

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“Follower” and “Digging” are two poems written by Seamus Heaney, from his collection titled Death of a Naturalist which was published in 1966. The poems are about a speaker looking back and admiring the hard work and dedication of his father. He is admiring their work yet towards the end is not able to follow their footsteps. Both of these poems have a shift in time, it goes to the past and towards the end makes a prediction about the future. The poems share a theme; how the shift in time affects the father-son relationship. Heaney expresses this theme through the use of symbolism, repetition and the shifts in time. The shift in time, use of imagery and the use of literary sound devices of the poems all help propose the same theme. That the shift in time causes a change in the father-son relationship. …show more content…

He is once again talking about his father and makes him seem like a superhero by the words he uses. For example in line two “His shoulders globed like a full sail strung...” shows the father’s strength and big size. After talking about the past, the speaker talks about the present/future in the last stanza. In lines 22-24 the speaker says “But today it is my father who keeps stumbling behind me, and will not go away” The last part is talking about future. But this is to show how the roles of the son and the father have changed, they have switched completely where the son was the follower and now the father is. This helps the theme because it shows how the father and the son have gone through a change in their relationship. The relationship changes because in the beginning the son was the “follower” and the son was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a farmer like him. But the father-son relationship changes because now the father is the “follower” and the son has created a life for himself separate from what the father

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