3 Understanding the text

All the questions in the CIE Literature for English exam encourage an informed, personal response, which means that you should develop a sound understanding of the poem’s themes, main ideas, settings, situations and events. This will help you to explore the writer’s intentions and methods. This section has been divided into two main themes that Seamus Heaney examines in his poem ‘Follower’:

  • Individual identity

  • Family Love 

Examiner Tips and Tricks

Examiners reward an answer that responds “sensitively and in considerable detail” to the way the writer achieves their effects. You are being asked to explore the poem beyond surface meanings to show deeper awareness of ideas and attitudes. While knowing about a poet’s background will help you understand the themes they examine, your poetry answer should only mention the poet’s biographical information if it supports a point of analysis.

Individual identity 

  • Seamus Heaney was born in rural Ireland in 1939:

    • In 1995, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature

  • His poetry often reflects Irish literary and agricultural traditions

  • Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Follower’ is part of a 1966 anthology “Death of a Naturalist” 

  • Heaney’s life as a farmer’s son is reflected in the poem through its description of a father ploughing a field and “mapping” furrows:

    • The speaker says, “I wanted to grow up and plough”, which contributes to the poem’s autobiographical and reflective nature 

Family love 

  • Seamus Heaney’s poetry often raises themes of family relationships and childhood

  • The poem ‘Follower’ explores the relationship between a father and son

  • Traditional values within family relationships, specifically between father and son, are depicted through a memory

  • The son expresses admiration for their father’s traditionally masculine qualities, such as his physical strength and his pride in exacting agricultural work

  • But the adult speaker also reflects on childhood insecurities: “All I ever did was follow/In his broad shadow round the farm” and stumble “in his hob-nailed wake”

  • The poem’s conclusion considers the naturally occurring shift in the balance of power between a father and son

  • As physical characteristics change over time, roles reverse:

    • When the father grows old, it is he who is weak and dependant on his son