Follower

The title of this poem is ambiguous - it shows how the young Heaney followed his father literally and metaphorically. The child sees farming as simply imitating his father's actions (“close one eye, stiffen my arm”), but later learns how skilled the work is. He recalls his admiration of his father then; but now his father walks behind (this metaphor runs through the poem). Effectively their positions are reversed. His father is not literally behind him, but the poet is troubled by his memory: perhaps he feels guilt at not carrying on the tradition of farming, or feels he cannot live up to his father's example. The poem has several developed metaphors, such as the child's following in his father's footsteps and wanting to be like him. The father is sturdy while the child falls - his feet are not big enough for him to be steady on the uneven land. There are many nautical references: In these images the farmer is not shown as simple but highly skilled.  Heaney uses specialised terms (a special lexicon or register) from ploughing - terms such as “wing”, “sock” and “headrig”. There are many active verbs - “rolled”, “stumbled”, “tripping”, “falling” and “yapping”. There are lots of monosyllables and colloquial vocabulary, frequently as the rhyme word at the end of line. Some of these terms sound like their meaning (onomatopoeia), like “clicking”, “pluck” and “yapping”. The metre of the poems is more or less iambic (in tetrameters - four poetic feet/eight syllables to each line) and rhymed in quatrains (stanzas of four lines). We see a phrase without a verb written as sentence: “An expert”. The poet uses contrast - apart from the general contrast of past and present we note how:
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">The father's shoulders are like the billowing sail of a ship.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">The “sod” rolls over “without breaking” (like a wave).
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">The child stumbles “in his wake” and dips and rises on his father's back.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">“Mapping the furrow” is like navigating a ship.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">the father's control is effortless (“clicking tongue” or “single pluck/Of reins”) while the powerful horses (“sweating team”) strain, and how
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif">the young Seamus “wanted to grow up and plough.” but all he “ever did was follow”.