1. Follower
Seamus Heaney

2. Follower
My father worked with a horse-plough, I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake,
His shoulders globed like a full sail Fell sometimes on the polished sod;
strung Sometimes he rode me on his back
Between the shafts and the furrow. Dipping and rising to his plod.
The horses strained at his clicking
tongue. I wanted to grow up and plough,
To close one eye, stiffen my arm.
An expert. He would set the wing All I ever did was follow
And fit the bright steel-pointed sock. In his broad shadow around the farm.
The sod rolled over without breaking.
At the headrig, with a single pluck I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,
Yapping always. But today
Of reins, the sweating team turned It is my father who keeps stumbling
round Behind me, and will not go away.
And back into the land. His eye
Narrowed and angled at the ground,
Mapping the furrow exactly.

3. Close Reading Questions
Provide full answers backed up with quotations
• Describe the speaker and who is • What other language techniques
he speaking about? What is the and examples show that the
tense and what does this show? speaker admires his father?
• What is the speaker describing? • In the final stanza, how has the
• How does the speaker feel about father now become like the
his father? speaker? How is the tone of voice
• What does the title tell us? in the final stanza different from
the rest of the poem?
• Describe the form of poem • What does the choice of verbs
used, the structure of show? (“narrowed … angled …
stanzas, lines, rhyme scheme. mapping”)
Any repetition, parallels or other
patterns? • What choice of verbs are used to
• How might the structure here describe the speaker? Now
represent the action of compare these to the description
ploughing? How might it of the father.
represent the father? • Identify the imagery used by the
• Explain the comparison suggested poet and discuss their meanings.
by the simile used in stanza 1. • Why do you think Heaney has
written this poem?

4. Themes
• Group work • Next
Compare and discuss your As a group, come to a
responses to the ‘Close consensus on 3 key
Reading Questions’. themes explored by
Eg. “I thought the simile Heaney in this poem.
showed……, what did you Provide evidence from the
think?” text for each theme and a
Add new ideas to your reasonable explanation.
own answers. Now, put them in what
you think is their order of
priority

5. Biography & Background
Heaney was born on 13th. April
1939, the eldest of nine children
at the family farm called
Mossbawn in the Townland of
Tamniarn near
Castledawson, Northern
Ireland, about thirty miles north- In 1957 Heaney travelled to
west of Belfast and two miles Belfast to study English Language
north-east of Magherafelt. As and Literature at Queen's
well as being a farmer, his father University of Belfast. He began to
Patrick was also a cattle dealer write and during his third year at
and was a popular figure at cattle university his poems began to
markets and fairs throughout the appear in the Queen’s literary
district. magazines Q and Gorgon.
http://www.seamusheaney.org/seamus_
heaney_biography.html

6. Analysis
Heaney presents us with a very vivid picture of his father as he appeared to the poet as a young boy. We
learn a lot about both the relationship that existed between them and the way Heaney saw his family.
The father is, more than anything else, an energetic and skilled farmer. He is 'An expert' with the horse-
plough and Heaney as a little boy would simply get in his father's way. The poem is full of admiration for his
father's strength and skill with horses. At the end of the poem, however, we are moved to the present day
and there is a change in roles; it is now Heaney's father who has become the child who gets in the way. His
awareness of how the passing of time has brought about this change does not lessen the love and respect
he feels, however.
Heaney remembers when he was a small boy, and in the poem he looks up to his father in a physical
sense, because he is so much smaller than his father, but he also looks up to him in a metaphorical sense.
This is made clear by the poet's careful choice of words. An example of this is in the lines:
"His eye
Narrowed and angled at the ground,
Mapping the furrow exactly."
The choices of the verbs "Narrowed", "angled" and "Mapping" effectively suggest his father's skill and
precision. We are also told that young Heaney "stumbled in his hob-nailed wake," which brings to our mind
a picture of the ploughman's heavy boots, the carefully ploughed furrow and the child's clumsy enthusiasm.
This idea is repeated in the lines:
" I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,
Yapping always."
These words, especially "Yapping" make us think of the boy as being like a young and excited puppy -
enjoying playing at ploughing, but of no practical help. In fact, he was a hindrance to a busy farmer, but his
father tolerates him.

7. Analysis
His father's strength and power are also very effectively brought out in the simple, but effective simile:
"His shoulders globed like a full sail strung
Between the shafts and the furrow."
The comparison here suggests a man who spends much of his time out of doors, a man who is a part of nature. The word
"globed" also suggests great strength and gives the impression that the father was the whole world to the young boy. It is
important to note that his father is not simply strong; his tender love and care for his son are emphasised by the fact that he
"rode me on his back/ Dipping and rising to his plod". The sound and rhythm of these lines convey the pleasure young
Heaney had in the ride.
The poem is written in six stanzas of four lines each. The first four stanzas describe Heaney's admiration for his father and his
abilities. The next five and a half lines SHOW that the poet wanted to grow up to be like his father. However, he feels that he
could do no more than get in the way. Then there is a twist in the last two and a half lines:
"But today
It is my father who keeps stumbling
Behind me, and will not go away."
All through the poem Heaney uses devices like this to suggest to the reader something about his father. Some lines have a
rhythm which suggest the ruggedness of the ploughman and the rhythm of the ploughing. Also, Heaney uses words that do
not rhyme exactly, like "sock" and "pluck" ('half-rhyme'). This adds to the 'craggy' description. Heaney is also very careful
about how he arranges the words on the page. The second stanza begins with a brief two word statement -"An
expert", which, in its emphatic brevity, forces us to take note, and leaves the impression that there is nothing more to add.
Even though the word 'love' is never used in the poem, it is obviously the word that best describes the basis of the
relationship existing between Heaney and his father. The poem is very much a personal experience, but it has a much wider
significance relating to any kind of hero-worship by a 'follower'. Now that he is himself an adult, Heaney acknowledges that
the father he hero-worshipped as a young boy has grown old and needs as much tolerance and patience as he himself once
showed his son.

8. Compare
Chart the similarities and differences between Follower & these poems
• Praise Song for my
Mother
• Childhood
• Follower • For Heidi with Blue Hair
• My Parents
• Elegy for my Father’s
Father
• Country School
• A Dream

9. Briefly
• Seamus Heaney was born in 1939 to • It is the reminiscing narrator who
a farming family in County defines his father’s ploughing skills;
Derry, Northern Ireland, and much of as a youth he was eager, but
his poetry is rooted in Ireland. He was ‘stumbled’. As the father gives the
awarded the Nobel Prize for child a ride on his back while
Literature in 1995. ploughing, the reader senses the
patience of the elder man with the
• Heaney’s farming background is ‘nuisance’, but also evident is the
evident in this poem, as the first five child’s aspiration ‘to grow up and
stanzas celebrate the father’s plough’.
expertise in old-fashioned ploughing
with horses. The language constantly • The final stanza reverses the
points to his skill in controlling the positions and can be interpreted in
horses and ploughing perfect furrows alternative ways. It could be the
in the soil, which ‘rolled over without elderly, infirm father who now ‘keeps
breaking.’ It is as much an evocation stumbling’, or it could be the memory
of tradition and direct contact of the now deceased father which
between man and the earth, as it is consistently shambles through the
of the father. narrator’s mind. If the poem is read
autobiographically, the ending has
extra poignancy, as Seamus Heaney
never grew up to ‘plough’.