Follower

• • His shoulders globed like a full sail strong
• • An expert
• • I wanted to grow up and plough
• • All I ever did was follow in his broad shadow round the farm
• • Today it is my father who keeps stumbling behind me, and will not go away
• Half Rhymes 


  reflect speaker’s belief that he doesn‘t compare to his father
• Slight Cyclicality and Volta 


  indicates that roles between father and son eventually reverse, conveying a natural cycle of life
• • Seamus Heaney 1966
• Six stanzas with four lines written in iambic pentameter 



  reflects steady rhythm and reliability if father’s ploughing
• • Structure mirrors horse movement
• Family Love/ admiration 


  mother any distance, walking away or climbing my grandfather