Follower

Follower: Overview

Overview

In order to answer an essay question on any poem, it is important to understand what it is about. This section includes:

• An overview of the poem

• A “translation” of the poem, section-by-section

• A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Seamus Heaney’s intention and message

‘Follower’ overview

Seamus Heaney’s poem, ‘Follower’, is a reflection on a child and parent’s changing relationship. It explores how the power dynamics between a father and son shifts as their roles naturally reverse over time. 

‘Follower’ breakdown

Lines 1-3

Translation

• A child speaker describes their father as a strong farmer with shoulders as wide and broad as a sail:

  • They seemed to take up the whole width of the ditch he is ploughing

Heaney’s intentions

• Heaney’s first person speaker describes the way they remember their father

• Imagery connotes to the father’s strength and natural ability to harness the elements, implying the child’s sense of awe for their father’s size and power

Lines 4-7

Translation

• The speaker describes their father managing a horse easily: he is an “expert”

• The father is able to complete his farming tasks competently

Heaney’s intentions

• By starting a new stanza with the short phrase and caesura, Heaney draws attention to the father’s mastery (or expertise)

• Heaney’s speaker remembers their father clearly and in detail, which highlights the influence he had on his son as a child watching him go about his daily work

 Lines 8-12

Translation

• The speaker’s memory of their father is vivid: each movement or gesture is detailed:

  • The father easily directs the horses with a “single pluck” of the “reins”

  • Both the father and horse have been working hard and are “sweating”

  • He carefully plans where to dig the “furrow” or trench

Heaney’s intentions

• Heaney illustrates the power of memory as his speaker remembers his father in present tense verbs, as if he is there watching his father “mapping” and “sweating”

• Again, the speaker remembers how exacting and careful his father is, which implies a sense of pride in his work

Lines 13-16

Translation

• The speaker remembers themselves as a child, and how they struggled to keep up with their father, especially the tracks of his father’s boots (his “hob-nailed wake”)

• When the child fell, the father would put the child on his shoulders and he would bounce to the “dipping and rising” of his footsteps (“plod”)

Heaney’s intentions

• The poem’s tender memory of a child trying to keep up with their father conveys a sense of nostalgia

• Heaney uses the symbolic ideas of a child in his father’s large footsteps to suggest the speaker is intimidated by their father’s “polished” work and large stature:

  • Heaney begins to introduce imbalances in relationships between child and parent and, specifically, a son under his father’s critical eye

Lines 17-20

Translation

• The voice of an adult speaker reflects on their feelings as a child

• The child wanted to become a good farmer and emulate their father, but they only ever followed in his large “shadow”, implying the son was unable to be like his father

Heaney’s intentions

• Heaney illustrates, through the speaker’s reflection, how traditional expectations of sons becoming their fathers may cause tension in family relationships

• Heaney also raises the question of traditional masculine roles with characteristics such as physical strength and stoic discipline

Lines 21-24

Translation

• The speaker accepts that their youthful enthusiasm and limited physical abilities must have been a “nuisance”, or an annoyance, to their father

• However, the poem ends with a sudden shift in perspective as the speaker returns to present day (“was” becomes “is”):

  • The son is now an adult and their father has grown weak and dependent, just like they were when they were little

Heaney’s intentions

• Heaney’s speaker reflects on how changing power imbalances between father and son happen naturally over time

• Heaney’s poem concludes with a suddenly impatient speaker

• There is a sense of irony as the child is now stronger and more able than their father:

  • Present tense verbs, “tripping”, “falling” and “yapping”, describe the child’s weaknesses, but now the father is “stumbling” and following his son around

Follower: Writer's methods

Writer's methods

Although this section is organised into form, structure, and language, it is worth remembering that all of these are considered “writer’s methods” in the CIE Literature for English poetry mark scheme. With this in mind, consider the poet’s choice of form (the way the poem looks or the type of poem it is), its structure (especially how it ends: is it cyclical or resolved?) and, of course, the language used to create effect and, thus, meaning.  

By focusing on the poet’s overarching ideas rather than identifying poetic techniques or translating quotes, you will gain far more marks. That is why all the analysis below is arranged by theme and includes Seamus Heaney’s intentions in terms of his choices of:

• Form

• Structure

• Language

Form

Seamus Heaney’s speaker reflects on their childhood in a ballad. The regular and steady form reflects the father’s sense of order and efficiency.  

Structure 

Heaney’s speaker is reflective as he remembers his childhood but, at times, the voice is broken to reveal tensions between the father and son.  

Language 

Seamus Heaney’s poem describes the vivid memory of a child as they watch their father work. The poem portrays the strong influence of parent and child relationships, and the depth of their connection.  

Follower: Understanding the text

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 

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