The simile shows that, just as sails harness the power of the wind, he harnesses the power of the horse and uses them to plough.
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"An expert."
Describing his father as an expert shows that he's technically skilled as well as strong. This short, blunt sentence and its position at the start of the line makes it a confident, inarguable statement.
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"Sometimes he rode me on his back"
The paternal image shows how the narrator and his father have a good relationship, he's patient and loving with his son.
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"All I ever did was follow in his broad shadow"
The narrator feels like a failure for not learning how to plough. He felt like he was living in his father's shadow. He wanted to be as skillful and impressive as he was.
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"Behind me, and will not go away."
This emphasises how the "Follower" in the title is now the father, not the narrator, the title refers to both of them at different points in their life.
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"tripping, falling, Yapping"
The list of verbs and enjambment emphasises the narrator's clumsy persistence.
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Narrative
This poem describes a parent - child relationship and the growth and development of a boy turning into a man. At the start of the poem the narrator is describing and praising his father’s expert ploughing.
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Context
The author, Seamus Heaney, came from a long line of farmers and so in childhood was used to and experienced in hard, physical labour. Some of the farming specific terminology used makes it obvious that the author had some awareness in the subject.
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Form
The poem is made up of six stanzas, each four lines long, and is written mostly in iambic tetrameter. This neat structure and steady rhythm mimics the action of ploughing. Theres a regular ABAB rhyme scheme, however some are only half rhymes.
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Nautical Imagery
The narrator uses language of the sea and sailing to describe his father's ploughing. This emphasises the father's strength and skill and the admiration the boy felt for him. The narrator describes his father as the sails, the captain and the ship.
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Reflective Language
The narrator sees himself as a "nuisance" and maybe a failure, but at the end of the poem he understands that the father he admired so much as a boy is now dependent on him.
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Author
Seamus Heaney
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
"An expert."
Back
Describing his father as an expert shows that he's technically skilled as well as strong. This short, blunt sentence and its position at the start of the line makes it a confident, inarguable statement.
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