This is Episode 54 of Poems for the Speed of Life. Today's episode is a first for this show, as it includes two poems: "Digging" and "Follower", both by Seamus Heaney.

I felt like these two poems deserved to be read and heard and experienced together. Both “Digging” and “Follower” were included in Heaney’s first collection, Death of a Naturalist, in 1966. 

The central thrust of both poems is the poet’s relationship with his father. 

While Heaney’s farmer father Patrick would not die until 20 years later, each poem almost reads like an elegy: a tribute to, a farewell to, their relationship. 

In each poem, there is some tension between the awe the poet feels towards his father, and the paths the poet takes in his own life, and the effects of these decisions, and of time, on both men and on their relationship.

You can read "Digging" here

And "Follower" is available here

This is the second time poems by Seamus Heaney feature on Poems for the Speed of Life. Check out Episode 14 for "Postscript".

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Once Upon a Time by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/  | Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com