Set poem and themes

Set poem and themes	Surface Meaning	Subtle Meaning	Style	Response
Follower: family, rural life; traditions; memory; admiration; writing poetry	The boy used to stumble in the wake of his father as he ploughed; he admired the skill with which he directed the horses and the straightness of the lines of the furrows	Now it is the aging father who stumbles behind him and gets in the way	Alliteration is used with onomatopoeia ('squelch and slap') to suggest the sound and feel of peat Simile is used ('snug as a gun')to shock us into realising the power of the pen Metaphor is used ('living rooots awaken in my head') to cp roots in the soil with memories in the head At least 4 senses enhance the meaning The poem is organised in unrhyming , irregular verses which develop as if we are tracking Heaney's thoughts	Is the poet as skilled in poetry, writing straight and disciplined lines of verse and controlling the turns of form and meaning? Is the blank page his 'field'?
Digging: family; rural life; memory; loss; jealousy; writing poetry	The poet, at his window desk, looks out and sees his father digging . Remembers him digging potatoes and his grandfather digging peat	Heaney draws a parallel between his father digging the land and him harvesting memories – between skillful use o f the spade and the pen	Ist person 9 verses of irregular length; use of adjectives; use of onomatopoeia; alliteration; sound echoes sense	Clever how the poem is itself an example of harvesting a memory
Death of a Naturalist: Memory; loss; rural life;growing up	The poet remembers collecting frogspawn in jamjars as a child and later finding the frogs scary.	The frogs revolt the poet; change therefore symbolises how the attractive can become ugly; innocence is replaced by experience; youth by age; ignorance by knowledge; security by fear.	Two stzas, with clear contrast (innocence: experience); lexis moves from + to -; effective imagery ('like mud grenades') and metaphor ('eg 'slap and pop'); alliteration ('heavy handed'); rhythm used for dramatic effect ('I sickened, turned and ran… '); 1st person makes us more likely to 'believe.	I recognize some truth in this, for example in the way my attitudes towards animals changed as I grew up and realised that they were where meat came from!
At a Potato Digging	Describes the harvesting of potatoes, with labourers following the mechanical digger	The potatoes can look like the skulls of those who perished in the Irish potato famine. The potato has or had the power of life or death.	4 numbered sections with a clear movement – harvesting, the richness of the tubers, the famine, the fulfilment order of section one reflects the straight potato drills –note 10 syllable lines, regular rhyme sec two's freer form reflects the scattered tubers ready for collecting powerful alliteration in eg 'pits turned pus' emphasises the foulness of the famine crop	I find the parallel between the potatoes with their 'eyes' and the dead from the 19^th century powerful, linking the cause with the consequence.
Storm on the Island Rural life; nature as hostile	A description o f the way storm winds pummel the houses on a treeless, exposed island	The weather can be an enemy attacking from the air – just like an aerial attack in wartime	ten syllable lines, suggesting the poem is carefully built, like the houses strong, effective metaphors eg the tame cat that spits and turns savage; the gale 'strafes' paradox of 'huge nothing' effective and perhaps makes us think of God as well as the storm?	Humans faced with the elements are vulnerable, and perhaps as exposed as if on 'Judgement Day'. Preparation before it comes is perhaps the key to salvation.
Catrin Growing up; family; loss	Memory of emotional struggle beween baby and the poet, with update now she's a wilful child	Analysis of the emotional conflicts between a parent and a growing child; 'in the dark' metaphorically means 'in ignorance of the pangs a parent feels'.	in two parts: memory and commentary/update conversational effective alliteration; eg 't' sounds for emphasis in 26.27. metaphor of 'old rope' for umbilical cord is powerful.	Reminds me of the conflicts with my parents – disputes do not mean they do not love me.
A Difficult Birth, Easter 1998 Animals; living together; resolution of disputes; rural life	'An old ewe, after considerable difficulties, gives birth to twin lambs.	There is a parallel with the peace negotiations in Belfast; after 81 years, the Good Friday settlement is born. The sense of rebirth is comparable to Jesus rising from the dead ('the stone rolled away')	combines personal experience with the public process of politics colloquial ('won't come'), accessible language 4 stanzas mark 4 stages in the poem	perhaps the new peace is akin to a miracle having happened; it is the birth of a new faith and hope for the future, too.
Cold Knap Lake Memory; family	The poet remembers her mother giving the kiss of life to a girl who nearly drowned; her parents 'thrashed' her.	Memory is like a lake; beneath the surface, 99% is hidden away in the subconscious mind; can we retrieve and revive dead memories?	Conversational Autobiographical Occasional part-rhyme and climactic full rhyme at end Rich in symbols – eg swans may be her life since the accident	I wonder I n what senses the man was 'poor' – perhaps 'uncivilised' in his treatment of his daughter, as well as lacking money.
The Field Mouse Rural life; death; war/politics	During the harvest a mouse is injured and dies	A field can become a battlefield, with a crop of casualties; neighbours can become murderous enemies, as in Bosnia.	3 stzas chart movement from harvesting through the mouse's death to a reflection on fields of death and a nightmare of civil war the 'rumour of pain' may suggest the story of original sin, explaining mortality the movement towards dusk parallels the movement from death to life	The harvest is a sort of killing; a death in order to feed life. The images of the dying mouse and the dying children remind me of how fragile and vulnerable life is.