Follower BY SEAMUS HEANEY Historical Background Seamus Heaney

Follower BY SEAMUS HEANEY

Historical Background Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet and was born April 13, 1939. He was a playwright, translator, lecturer and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. His father owned and worked a small farm of some fifty acres in County Derry in Northern Ireland, but the father's real commitment was to cattle-dealing. The poet's mother came from a family called Mc. Cann whose connections were more with the modern world than with the traditional rural economy.

Summary & Thesis Statement This poem is about how a little boy looks up to his father who is a farmer as his role model. Simile- is a comparison using like or as. Irony- is a difference between appearance and reality.

The Theme The theme is growth at the beginning of the poem he is a young boy, who looks up to his father. However, by the end of the poem it is his father who needs help from his son. The poem is divided into six quatrains, and the rhyme of each stanza could be defined as a kind of abab.

The Tone The second stanza starts with the words “An expert”, and then there is a pause marked by a full stop. Saying this brief expression, the author emphasizes again the carefulness and accuracy that his father had when he was working. The title refers to the admiration that the poet feels for his father and it also represents the desire of being like him in a future. I think that throughout the entire poem we can also understand the origins of the poet’s family.

Figurative Language In the Follower some poetic devices used where Simile and Irony. Another poetic device would be Irony of situation. Wing (a section that can be fitted to the plough such that its angle cause a cutting and upward loosening of the soil)

Poem Interpretation The poet, as a young boy, follows his father as he goes about his work and like most boys, he idolises his father and admires his great skill, ` an expert` with the horse-plough and Heaney as a little boy would simply get in his fathers way. A father/son relationship. When Heaney brings the poem up to the present: “it is my father who keeps stumbling/Behind me, and will not go away”.

Conclusion In conclusion, Heaney uses diction, visual images, and figurative language to describe the physical relationship between a father and son. The visual images constantly allow us to picture the father hard at work, which is comparable to a sailor sailing a ship. The son wants to be like his father, but he lacks the physical aspects to meet that deed, perhaps because he is only a child. But, the son admires his father, as the title would suggest.

My work citied Seamus. "Follower. " Connecting with Seamus Heaney. N. p. , n. d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. "The Use of Language in the Work of Seamus Heaney. " Write. Work. N. p. , n. d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. "IB English II Blogs. " : Heaney's "Follower" Commentary. N. p. , n. d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.