Seamus Heaney presents the poem follower to represent the relationship between the father and the son.By showing the aundience that the effects of the word its self “follower” went from when he used to follow his father steps and get in the way when he was working with a horse plough”I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake”This tell us that the son himself used to get in the way and fall on his fathers “polished sod”.So the narrator keeps this idea going through out the poem until the last stanza where the story has a twist. On the last stanza the narrator begins to change it from the past when the son was interrupting his fathers works “I was a nuisance,tripping and falling ” but the twist is that the narrator says ” but today It is my father” This gives the reader the image that the father is now old and “keeps stumbling”.
The structure of the poem is made so that at every start of each stanza .The boy talks about how he compliments his father “an expert” “my father” so he always complimented his father or talked about how he got helped by his father but at the end it changes it ” I was a nuisance” so to remember the past then says “But today ” and refers to his father doing his mistakes.
November 7, 2016 at 7:26 pm
You have responded well to this poem, Eric.
I like the clarity of your first sentence. You make an interesting point in your second sentence about the idea of following changing throughout the poem but this needs tidying up a bit in terms of phrasing and punctuation – have another look at it.
You have beautifully embedded your quote “keeps stumbling” at the end of the first paragraph – well done.
The next step would be to comment on some language and structural features of the poem. Have a go at a second draft of this, incorporating some comments on how Heaney has used language and how he has structured the poem to reflect his message.