Follower, Seamus Heaney

• Context


  ● Born in Northern Ireland - tradition which values physical labour, farming community

  ● Eldest of 9 children - pressure to become a successful farmer

  ● Father was a cattle farmer

  ● Young boys in the time this was written (1966) looked up to sailing - adventure books in 1950s, ship captains were heroes, emphasises the admiration for father
• ‘Globed like a full sail strung’


  simile admires strength as ship harness wind power, nautical imagery.
• ‘An expert.’


  holophrastic, confidence in father
• ‘Fit the bright steel-pointed sock’

  harsh plosives ‘k’ ‘t’ reflect precision
• Stumbled in his hob nailed wake’

  choppy waters left behind ship, son finds it hard to follow. Innocence, inexperience, can’t keep up
• ‘Plough follow’ ‘sock pluck’


  half rhymes - never will live up to his father’s level of skill
• 'Tripping, falling, yapping’


  use of verbs to emphasise clumsiness. Yapping zoomorphism - dog follows owner
• 'Father who keeps stumbling’


  reversal of roles - physical weakness due to old age or son has excelled ahead of him theme of ageing - caesura
• ‘Will not go away’


  ambiguous - annoyed or glad
• ‘Ride on his back’


  affectionate
• Enjambment


  reflects turning of the plough and continuity of work - admiration
• ABAB but 1 full, 1 half


  full-fathers expertise, half- him trying to live up to example
• Themes and comparisons

  • Family relationships: BEFORE YOU WERE MINE - admiration skill vs rebellious nature, negative shift in last part of poem (insufficiency vs guilt), role reversal

  ● Nature: LETTERS FROM YORKSHIRE - desire for other lifestyle (admiration vs contrasts), connection to nature shows close bonds (birds vs nautical imagery)