Follower Poem Evaluation
In this assessment I will be evaluating and exploring the poem “follower” by Seamus Heaney. This poem is autobiographical as the poem examines the relationship between the poet Seamus Heaney and his father when he was a small boy.
The structure of the poem is BAB rhyme scheme and 6 stanzas. The First 3 stanzas describe the father at his work; the last 3 stanzas are when the character enters the poem and controls the poem while the father becomes a secondary character, this could link to how Heaney's father had increasingly taken a more diminished role in Heaney's life.
The skilled nature of his father is shown in the opening stanza where his power as a farmer is described. The simile ‘his shoulders like a full sail strung between the shafts and the furrow’ emphasises how powerful and mighty he appeared to Heaney as a child. The quote “the horses strained at his clicking tongue” shows he controlled the horses simply by clicking his tongue, showing how skilled he is.
In the second stanza it opens with the use of a short sentence “an expert” these 2 words on its own emphasise the importance of it and importance of sharing the thought of how skilled his father is. His qualities are further emphasised when he tells us ‘the sod rolled over without breaking’ as this expresses how talented he is to roll the sod over perfectly without fault.
In the third stanza Heaney uses the quote “of reins, the sweating team turned round and back into land” this describes how he gets the horses as a ‘team’ to move effortlessly and turn round’, in this quote also uses an alliteration as he says “team turned” the sounds of the t repeating expresses the power and control the father had over the horse.
In the fourth stanza the poet Heaney says “I stumbled in his hobnailed, fell sometimes on the polished sod; Sometimes he rode me on his back” Heaney, by comparison is clumsy and ‘fell sometimes on the polished sod’, He lacks the control and power of his father who carries him ‘on his back’
The structure of the poem is BAB rhyme scheme and 6 stanzas. The First 3 stanzas describe the father at his work; the last 3 stanzas are when the character enters the poem and controls the poem while the father becomes a secondary character, this could link to how Heaney's father had increasingly taken a more diminished role in Heaney's life.
The skilled nature of his father is shown in the opening stanza where his power as a farmer is described. The simile ‘his shoulders like a full sail strung between the shafts and the furrow’ emphasises how powerful and mighty he appeared to Heaney as a child. The quote “the horses strained at his clicking tongue” shows he controlled the horses simply by clicking his tongue, showing how skilled he is.
In the second stanza it opens with the use of a short sentence “an expert” these 2 words on its own emphasise the importance of it and importance of sharing the thought of how skilled his father is. His qualities are further emphasised when he tells us ‘the sod rolled over without breaking’ as this expresses how talented he is to roll the sod over perfectly without fault.
In the third stanza Heaney uses the quote “of reins, the sweating team turned round and back into land” this describes how he gets the horses as a ‘team’ to move effortlessly and turn round’, in this quote also uses an alliteration as he says “team turned” the sounds of the t repeating expresses the power and control the father had over the horse.
In the fourth stanza the poet Heaney says “I stumbled in his hobnailed, fell sometimes on the polished sod; Sometimes he rode me on his back” Heaney, by comparison is clumsy and ‘fell sometimes on the polished sod’, He lacks the control and power of his father who carries him ‘on his back’