The poems Digging and Follower by Seamus Heaney both are powerful expressions of the poet's admiration and respect for his father.
Heaney strongly stresses his relationship with his father by creating a forceful comparison between himself and his dad and by doing so raises another important issue that is present throughout both works, the significance of the nature of change.
However even though the depiction of the father in both poems seems quite similar at first glance it later is evident that there are nevertheless certain differences between the two images created.
Follower and Digging both give a clear account of Heaney's affectionate feelings towards his father with particular emphasis on the poet's response to the physical labour of his father. Both works effectively capture the contrast between past and present, Heaney's life and that of his father and once again highlight the re-occurring theme of the nature of change. This notion of transformation is effectively conveyed in the poems by the display of the father's and also Heaney's journey through life. Both poems paint a clear picture of their lives that spans over several years, even generations and that so effectively condenses the happenings in that time.
Evidence of this is given in both poems, for example in Follower it states that:
It is my father who keeps stumbling "
The use of the word today gives a clear account of that alteration in time from the past to the present and creates a link between the two. It however also produces an obvious contrast between the two times, once again leaving the reader with a more firm understanding of the changes that must have occurred in the father's person during that time.
A similar allusion is also present in Digging when Heaney writes:
"Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low , comes up twenty years a way."
In contrast to Follower the notion of change is not so evidently present in this part...