Follower

poet

Seamus Heaney

themes

Identity , growth change, generational cycle, admiration

conext

Relationship between father and son made up of a memory of father’s skill at ploughing in the farm however by the final stanza relationship has changed. Autobiographical poem as Heaney was brought up on a farm in northern ireland.

His shoulders globed like a full sail strung

• sailing imagery → can harness power of the wind → shows the physicality of a farmer’s work

• simile → comparing his father’s shoulders to a sail 

• verb ‘globed’ → his shoulders were round and full, like a sail stretched by the wind,

• as well as imagery of a globe = world greek mythology reference to the titan Atlas who was forced to carry the heavens → father carries weight of the world on his shoulders → shows his strength, raw power and dependency

The horses strained at his clicking tongue

verb ‘strained’ → shows his command, control and power

An expert.

caesura → skill is unquestionable to the highest degree, shows his experience and speakers admiration for his father

I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake

verb ‘stumbled’ → incapable/inferior , trying to be like father but failing

further sailing imagery → wake is the trail a ship leaves behind; he’s comparing himself to a small, unsteady boat trying to follow a powerful ship — his father.                                                             

‘hob-nailed wake’ → the footprints his father left behind → trying to follow in his father’s footsteps

I wanted to grow up and plow

suffix -ed → past tense shows his ideals/dreams have changed he’s no longer wishes his father’s life for himself

All I ever did was follow                                                                      in his broad shadow

• metaphor → highlight admirable qualities of father 

• adjective ‘broad’ →hard for speaker to step out of the shadow and go his own way

• imbalanced complex relationship

[But today                                                                                              Its is my] father who keeps stumbling                                                  Behind me, and will not go away

today → present tense contrast thrown into the poem

verb ‘stumbling’ → reduced role of father

-ing progressive participle → inevitable the generational cycle

preposition ‘behind’ → lack of eye to eye connection

structure

end stops throughout poem →. signalling change of direction

enjambment → continuous movement of ploughing

mostly regular ABAB rhyme scheme and steady rhythm → eflects the father’s control, precision, and strength — just like his ploughing.