follower Flashcards
seamus heaney (18 cards)
context
- generational farming family
- grew up in world of physical labour
LANGUAGE - title
“fllower”
-> speaker on physical level as he follows his around on farm
-> on metaphorical level he idolises him and wants to be like his father
-» follwing in his “hob nailed wake”
-»> speaker is literally followin gin his fathers footsteps
-»» finally learn situation has changed and father is following him
-»»> changing meaning of the metaphor and word follower - situation has changed by the end - changing nature of parent child relationship over time
meaning
- father is amazing
- speaker wanted to grow up to be like him
- but now he has grown up his father is stumbling behind him
- changing nature of parental relationships
- role reversal
STRUCTURE - what does it include
- passive vs active verbs
- repetitive rhyme scheme
- cyclical
- transposed sentence
- quatrains
- stable ryhtmic pattern
STRUCTURE - why are the lines slightly shorter (?)
- quickens pace of reading
- breathless quality
- reflecting the speed and skill of the father able to work at
STRUCTURE - why is there a tightly ordered strtucture
- to relfect the tightly ordered act of ploughing
- and neatness and perfection of father
-> skill of father and what boy / speaker admires so much and respects
STRUCTURE - quatrains
- all in 4 lines
- neat and stable structure mirors the well ploughed fields
STRUCTURE- transposed sentences
- “yapping always” is changed from always yapping
-> traditional dialect
-> to show how all consuming the boy’s admiration for the father is
STRUCTURE - passive vs active verbs (?)
- active verbs in first stanzas such as “worked, pluck, mapping”
- reverses as the poem pregresses with active verbs applied to son
-> “stumbled, tripping, falling” = present tense
STRUCTURE - cyclical
- ” i stumbled in his hob-nailed wake”
- “it is my father who keeps stumbling behind me”
-> roles of parents and children change as they grow up
STRUCTURE - stable rhytmic pattern
- steady ryhtm of poem
-> stable relationship between speaker and father - many lines have iambic tetrameter = regular rhytm
- inconsistent ryhtm throughout poem
-> incomplete aspect to paternal relationship
-» perhaps tensions between father and son
STRUCTURE - perfect rhyme and slant rhyme
- each stanza has one perfect rhyme and one slant rhyme
-> mirror feeling that heaney has that he will never live up to his fathers aptitude
STRUCTURE - enjambment
- “with a single pluck // of reins…”
-> onto next stanza (not just line)
-» at point where father is turning around to plough
-» so poet gets to end of the stanza
-»> reflects the art of ploughing
-»» speed and skill father possesses -> flows
STRUCTURE - caesura
” an expert.”
-> makes us stop and think about it
-> finality - heaneys father is an expert (no debate)
STRUCTURE - changing stanza focus
- first hald is all about father
- changes to speaker with “i” as the first word in the last 3 stanzas
-> speakers focus is coming away from father
-» becoming his own persona dn developi9ng his own identity
-»> focus on father reflects changing nature of relationship
LANGUAGE - metaphor of a ship/ sailing
- “his shoulders globed like a full sail strung”
-> distance between them both as the father becomes like a ship getting further and further away
-» distance between what is strong and what is left (his father was strong “globed”, he was weak “stumbled”.
-> “globed” = father is carrying world on his shoulders = strength and responsibility
-» change in father son relationship as they grow older and grow further apart due to occupations and dreams - “wake” - double meaning, track of waves left in water by a ship
- sailing images
-> highly skilled role of a father = highly skilled to master a ship
-> imagery represents how important father is as he is the ship and captain
-» majestic images show a stark contrast to boy who is always stumbling
LANGUAGE - “all i ever did was follow in his broad shadow round the farm”
- noun “shadow” = speaker felt eclipsed by his father’s presenced
- “broad” adjective = shadow is large and speaker can’t escape teh shdow cast over him that his father has spread
-> feels trapped, to escape the “eclipse” is futile - lack of identity, speaker is in the shadow of his father
-> a shadow cannot part with an object relfects the strong and inseperable bond
-> as well as a shadow could be blocking light and the so the son’s opportunities
-» creates a strained relationship “and will not go away”
LANGUAGE - “my father”
- first line
- possessive
- instantly sets up focus around the father
