Link to the Past

“Digging” and “Follower,” by Seamus Heaney, are both about the work that Heany’s father did. There are many differences between the two poems, but the two are linked together by the past and the present. Heaney used motions and sounds to define the past, whereas he used tools to link to the present. Heaney seemed to be digging through the past to make a connection to his father in the present. In “Follower,” Heaney said that he used to follow his father around while he worked, but in the present, his father follows him around.
Heaney used imagery of the earth to help describe the work his father did. In “Digging,” Heaney described the sounds the earth made when his father and grandfather dug for potatoes. “The squelch and slap/ Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of and edge/ Through living roots awaken in my head,” Heaney said not only describing the land, but also using the last line as connotation to show that he was connected to the past through his mem...