Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Follower
- The title is ambiguous and gives a sense both of
Heaney following his father and metaphorically
following him as any child "follows" a parent
- The poem concludes with a
metaphorical relationship reversed
- Form and structure
- 6 stanzas of quatrains - tight and
controlled orderly - reflective of the
skilled work of his father
- autobiographical
- Past Tense
- Rhyme Scheme
- 5th Stanza - half rhymes "plough",
"Follow"
- 6th Stanza - the rhyme is stronger in the last stanza to
perhaps emphasize the closing message
- The perfect rhymes are representing Heaney's young desire to
be his father
- But the off-rhyme reflects that there is something not
quite right
- Loose - creating a
narrative/conversational tone
- ABAB
- Language
- 1st Stanza
- "Worked" - implies both the labour itself
and the control that his father had
- Simile - "Shoulders globed like a full sail strung" suggests great strength
and size with the word "globed" and the impression that his father was
the whole world to young Heaney
- The description also shows Heaneys
father as abnormal and a "superman"
figure
- Enjambment "strung/ Between the
shafts" allows the line to run longer to
fully emphasis the size of the man
- "the horses strained at his clicking tongue" -
his father had power over them, had the
ability to control them.
- Onomatopoeia "clicking tongue" -
shows the horse to be well trained and
it emphasizes the skill of the father
- 2nd Stanza
- "An expert" - Shows Heaneys admiration
for his father presented as a simple
statement of fact"
- Also the use of the punctuation of the full
stop emphasizes the admiration that
Heaney has
- Technical language when describing the
different parts of the plow in precise detail
- Alliteration of the "t" sound - "set", "fit", "steel-pointed"
- allows the reader to vividly hear the clank of metal
- Choice of the adjective "Single" reminds
us once again of the skill of his father
- 3rd Stanza
- "sweating team" - Assonance - connects the father and the animals, the
cooperation between man and beast is presented here and it is
intimately connected with the land
- Enjambment - the turn is imitated by the verse
being enjambed
- Mathematical language and
terms to emphasize the
precision of the work
- The words "angled", "mapped" and
"exactly" tell us that the business of
ploughing is very skilled
- 4th Stanza
- Contrast - between his father and himself through the
pronoun "I stumbled" - used to show the difference in
Heaney and his father - how Heaney is clumsy and his
father is skilled
- Subject of Sailing - choice of the word "wake" is in
keeping of the 1st stanza - impression of small Heaney is
a small boat and he is the wake of his father "the ship"
- The verb "fell" gives further emphasizes of
young Heaney's clumsiness
- Rhythmical device "dipping and rising' -
describes riding on his father's back -
emphasizes the strength of his father
- Captures the up-down movement of his
progress through the use of vowels - short 'i'
in "dipping" and the long 'i' in "rising"
- 5th Stanza
- Echo of the title - reminds us that
he doesn't follow his father
- Adjective "Broad" - emphasizes
the father's strength and size
- 6th Stanza
- Use of the verb "tripping", "falling",
"Yapping" - emphasize how clumsy and
unskilled Heaney was to his father
- Conjunction "But" - signals a
volte - change in tone, focus
and attitude
- Change in tense - past to present
tense - sums up the change in
mood in the stanza
- Tone of impatience - doesn't want
to run after his father
- Descriptions of his father are in
contrast with the earlier
descriptions
- Also a tone of sadness - father went from an
"expert" to a weak man who is in the shadow of his
son of whom once looked up to him
- Heaney is haunted with regret and guilt at his
decision not to follow his father and is reminded
by the weakness of his father
- The first three stanzas
concentrate on the poet's father
- The last three focus upon his
own position as a child
- Each of the 3 last stanzas open with the
personal pronoun "I", focuses to him and
not his father