Comparing and Contrasting Digging and The Follower

Comparing and Contrasting Digging and The Follower

In this essay I will be giving quotes and explaining about two pieces

of poetry, written by Seamus Heaney. The two poems I will be writing

on will contrast and his memories on his rural childhood.

The poems will be "the follower" which takes us back to Heaney as a

child wanting to follow in his father's footsteps. I will also be

writing on "digging", which takes us back once again to his farm but

instead not wanting to follow in his fathers footsteps

So basically I will be writing about how the poems contrast to his

rural childhood and I'll explain the quotes and the poems. I will

firstly however give you a bit of an insight to Heaney's life

Seamus Heaney was born April 13, 1939, at Mossbawn, about thirty miles

northwest of Belfast, in Northern Ireland. His first book, Death of a

Naturalist, was published in 1966. Heaney is the author of numerous

collections of poetry, three volumes of criticism, and The Cure at

Troy, a version of Sophocles' Philoctetes. He is a Foreign Member of

the American Academy of Arts and Letters and held the chair of

Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1989 to 1994. In 1995, he received

the Nobel Prize in Literature. A resident of Dublin since 1976, he

spends part each year teaching at Harvard University, where he was

elected the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory in 1984.

In "The Follower", Heaney uses words such as "globed" and "strained".

These are words, which show that life in the country is difficult and

that the work involved can be hard work. They do however, produce good

images about the country, because "globed like a full sail strung"...

... middle of paper ...

...rt point on both poems and explain

my opinion about them. Both 'follower' and 'Digging' explore Heaney's

sense of his own place in the family tradition. However, in 'Follower'

he seems content to register that his life has turned out different

from his father's, but nevertheless feels great love and admiration

for him. In 'Digging', the distance between him and his family seems

greater. There is the same affection and admiration, but there is also

a much greater emphasis on the poet's own skills and identity, a much

greater awareness of the difference between the worlds of pen and

land.

In my opinion I think the poems are written well but I wouldn't

normally like these poems, but after studying them you get a better

understanding for them and they don't seem as dull because you feel

you know more about the poems.