‘Follower’ by Seamus Heaney Hear it online at http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/follower-2/

Poetic devices and their effects – form (ballad, sonnet, free verse, dramatic monologue), alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia,

The metre of the poems is more or less iambic (in tetrameters - four poetic feet/eight syllables to each line) and rhymed in quatrains (stanzas of four lines).

Fairly colloquial style sets the tone of the farmer at work. Very regular pattern mirrors the repetitive, reliable nature of the work.

‘I wanted to grow up and plough’First person speaker, reflecting nostalgically on the past

Each stanza focuses on a different action, either the father’s work or the boy’s effort to follow him

Poem is narrated in short, complete episodes, very visual, suggesting fond or nostalgic memories, a little like a photo album.

Language and its effects – what sort of words are in the poem? Violent, loving, colloquial, archaic, semantic fields, diction, religious, romantic language

Lots of specialised technical language from ploughing: ‘wing’, ‘sock’, ‘headrig’

Reinforces the idea that the father is ‘an expert’

Pattern of 3: ‘tripping, falling,/yapping’ (also onomatopoeia)

All words suggest someone who is rather a nuisance and useless, in contrast to the ‘expert’ father.

Lots of very positive verbs: ‘set;, ‘fit’, ‘pluck’, ‘angled’

Semantic field of sailing: The father's shoulders are like the billowing sail of a ship.The “sod” rolls over “without breaking” (like a wave).The child stumbles “in his wake” and dips and rises on his

Makes the father appear practical and capable, very methodical and precise.

In these images the farmer is not shown as simple but highly skilled.

‘Follower’ by Seamus Heaney Hear it online at http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/follower-2/

father's back.“Mapping the furrow” is like navigating a ship.

Alternative interpretations – Can quotations be read in two ways for different meanings?

Title ‘Follower’ is ambiguous Shows how the speaker followed his father literally and metaphorically

The child sees farming as simply imitating his father's actions (“close one eye, stiffen my arm”), but later learns how skilled the work is.

He recalls his admiration of his father then; but now his father walks behind (this metaphor runs through the poem). Effectively their positions are reversed. His father is not literally behind him, but the poet is troubled by his memory: perhaps he feels guilt at not carrying on the tradition of farming, or feels he cannot live up to his father's example.

Structure and its effects – tonal shifts, pace, caesura, what rhyme stresses, beginning, middle, end, repetition, dialogue and where it happens, enjambment

Repetition of ‘stumbled’ and ‘stumbling’ in stanzas 3 and 5

The movement of the child and then the father mirrors that of youth and age, suggesting that we regress into children as we grow old, so the position of father and child is reversed.

Caesura of ‘An expert’ in stanza 1 –short and to the pointAlso ‘But today’ in the final stanza is a pivotal point in the poem, taking us into the present

Begins to introduce the character of the father – no-nonsense, very practical and direct. Possible also mirrors the style of speech the father might have, not wasting any words.

Enjambement in stanza 1-2 ‘with a single pluck/Of reins’

Implies very smooth, uninterrupted movement as if the father is completely in control, almost part of the plough.

‘Follower’ by Seamus Heaney Hear it online at http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/follower-2/

Use of contrast: the father's control is effortless (“clicking tongue” or “single pluck/Of reins”) while the powerful horses (“sweating team”) strain, and how the young Seamus “wanted to grow up and

plough.” but all he “ever did was follow”.

Ties in with the theme of the way time has reversed the roles of the father and son.

Tone and its effects – talking about moods which are evoked and where, narrative voice

Simple, direct tone, economical style with lots of monosyllabic words

Emphasises the no-nonsense character of the father, perhaps juxtaposed to his ‘stumbling’ son

Also a tone of regret and nostalgia: conditional verb ‘would’

Clearly the speaker is looking back at the past for the first four stanzas, then

Imagery and its effects - metaphor, simile, personification, visual sense

‘his eye.../Mapping the furrow exactly’ Metaphor suggests the father is rather like a machine, very precise and without any faults.

‘yapping’ - onomatopoeia Suggests the child is like a small dog, irritating and a nuisance.

‘I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake’The poem has several developed metaphors, such as the child's following in his father's footsteps and wanting to be like him. The father is sturdy while the child falls - his feet are not big enough for him to be steady on the uneven land.

Context – authorial, social and historicalSeamus Heaney (1939-2013) was born in

‘Follower’ by Seamus Heaney Hear it online at http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/follower-2/

Northern Ireland, the eldest child in what was to become a family of nine children. His father farmed 50 acres in rural County Derry and was a cattle dealer. Much of Heaney's poetry is centred on the countryside and farm life that he knew as a boy.