Follower

• " I stumbled in his hob-nailed awake", "it is my father who keeps stumbling/ Behind me"


  Cyclical narrative - some language regained at the end of the poem, the dad is now stumbling instead of the speaker

  Strong Paternal bond between father & son
• "His shoulders globed like a full sail strung"


  Sibilance - suggests father works smoothly and deliberately

  Simile - compares father's shoulders to a sail on a boat --> emphasises how he admires his power.
• "An expert. He would set the wing"


  caesura - sharp stop emphasises admiration of father's expertise

  Theme of admiration
• "The sod rolled over without breaking."


  Shows father's aptitude for farming --> emphasises speaker's feeling of displacement in the farm trying to find his own identity
• "Fell sometimes on the polished sod;"


  Contrast between 'Fell' and 'polished' indirectly compares father and son -> shows speaker struggles to make an identity when he can't follow his father's footsteps
• "It is my father who keeps stumbling/ Behind me, and will not go away."


  Ambiguity - father & son roles reversed OR father haunts the son while also reminding him that he lacks skill in farming