Can you use:•Alliteration?•Personification?•Onomatopoeia?•Assonance?

Follower- Heaney 1 May 2023

Mini Starter

Work in pairs and

bullet point/mind

map your ideas.

Must:Understand and be able to thoughtfully explain the meaning and main themes of the poem.(AO1)

Should:Explore and consider multiple interpretations of the poem. (AO1/AO2)

Could:Analyse the language, form and structure of the poem. (AO2)

Which verbs could you apply to both of these images?

Use your verbs in a sentence about each image.Example: HeavingHeaving the plough through the mud.Heaving the sail high up the mast.

Initial Impressions

• How does the poet feel about his father?• What is the purpose of the poem- why did he

write it?• What message does he want to leave his reader

with?

CHALLENGECan you identify the poets use of

contrasting images/ideas?

Why has he used these?

Context: What his contemporaries think!

Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) was one of the major poets of the 20th century. He won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1995.

He was the eldest of a large farming family in Northern Ireland. Many of his poems are about the past and about rural life and traditions. In this poem, he writes about coming to realise how skilled his father was, and seems troubled by the memory of him. Perhaps he feels guilty that he did not carry on the tradition, but instead became a poet, or feels unable to live up to his fathers example.

As you watch:•Do you agree with the interpretations?•Can you consider an alternative?•What have you learnt about Heaney has a poet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHGVB-cKknI

What is the poem about

The narrator describes his father’s expert ploughing. As a boy, he greatly admired his father’s skill.

The boy followed his father around the farm. Sometimes he’d stumble and fall, and occasionally his father would carry him on his back.

He wanted to grow up to be like his father, but all he ever did was follow him around being a nuisance.

Now they’re both older, the relationship has been reversed, and it’s the father who ‘follows’ his son.

Imagery

Look for references in the poem to movement, waves, ships or the sea.

Underline the exampleAnnotate with the explicit meaning

Annotate with at least one other implied meaning

His shoulders globed like a full sail strung.

Strong, powerful and has broad shoulders.

Implies pride in his powerful build and a sense of fluid movement suggesting

he is an expert at work.

CHALLENGEWhat is the significance of including these nautical references? What does it emphasise?

The “sod” rolls over “without breaking” (like a wave). The child stumbles “in his wake” and “dipping and rising” (like waves) on his father's back. “Mapping the furrow” is like navigating a ship.

My father worked with a horse-plough,His shoulders globed like a full sail strungBetween the shafts and the furrow.The horse strained at his clicking tongue.

An expert. He would set the wingAnd fit the bright steel-pointed sock.The sod rolled over without breaking.At the headrig, with a single pluck

Repetition of the hard-sounding letters “k” and “t” in this stanza reflect the precision of his hard work

Of reins, the sweating team turned roundAnd back into the land. His eyeNarrowed and angled at the ground,Mapping the furrow exactly.

I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake,Fell sometimes on the polished sod;Sometimes he rode me on his backDipping and rising to his plod.

This stanza change emphasises the contrast between the father’s skill and the clumsiness of his son-it’s unlikely he’ll grow up to be like his father.

The reference to a ship’s wake creates an image of choppy water- this emphasises how the son found it difficult to follow his father.

He describes his father like a ship riding the “Dipping” and “rising” ‘waves’ of the furrows. The rhythm of the poem itself seems to dip and rise – this imitates the boy’s movement on his father’s back.

I wanted to grow up and plough,To close one eye, stiffen my arm.All I ever did was followIn his broad shadow round the farm.

“plough” and “follow” are only half rhymes –this lack of full rhyme emphasises how the son has not fulfilled his desire to follow in his father’s footsteps.

He felt 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 skilful and impressive as he was.

I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,Yapping always. But today It is my father who keeps stumblingBehind me, and will not go away.

The list of verbs and enjambment emphasises the narrator’s clumsy persistence

Caesura makes this change to the present tense sudden and unexpected-this heightens the impact of the final few sentences.

In line 13 the boy was stumbling behind his father. Now the roles are reversed.

This emphasises how the ‘Follower’ in the title is now the father, not the narrator-the title refers to both of them at different times of their lives.

This is ambiguous-the speaker may be frustrated that his father won’t go away, or he may be glad that they still have a strong bond.

Feelings and AttitudesThe narrator admires his father’s skill at ploughing. As a child, he hero- worshipped him and hoped to take his place one day, despite struggling to follow him.

The narrator worries that he’s a failure because he didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps.

Despite not following in his father’s footsteps, the narrator still has a close relationship with him-he “will not go away”.

Questions1. What impression do you get of the narrator’s father from the poem?

2. Do you think the narrator is troubled by the fact that he did not grow up to be like his father?

3. Do you think the narrator is annoyed that his father “will not go away”?

Key Themes

Admiration and relationships change over time also feature in ‘Before you were mine’, strong family bonds in ‘Climbing My Grandfather’ and ‘Mother, Any Distance’, and nature in ‘Letters From Yorkshire’.

S.M.I.L.E

Symbolism

AlliterationAssonance

Simile Extended Metaphor

Personification

Ballad Sonnet

Free verseDramatic monologue

Juxtaposition

Oxymoron

Emotive LanguageRepetition

Rhyming Couplet

Enjambment

Voice Tone

ANALYSING YOUR POEM

Select an example paragraph below:How can it be improved?

Paragraph A:The description of the work and the tools associated with it is specific. Heaney applies assonance to emphasise the accuracy with which he ploughs the fields; “Narrowed and angled at the ground”, the repetition of the ‘a’ sound is short and harsh, mirroring the sound of the blade cutting through the ‘sod’.

Paragraph B:Heaney uses technical, agricultural terms, the ‘shafts’ and ‘headrig’ are prime examples of this. Using this semantic field gives the reader the impression that Heaney’s father uses the specialist equipment while carrying out his work, to get the best results from his land, showing his experience and skill.

Paragraph C:The present participles such as ‘stumbling’ and ‘dipping and rising’ give a defined sense of closeness to the action – as though the we, the reader, are in the field with Heaney and his father. The use of onomatopoeia such as ‘clicking tongue’ and ‘yapping’ add to this sense immediacy, allowing us to imagine the sounds surrounding them.

Individually re-write the paragraph making the improvements suggested in your pair.

Paragraph A:The description of the work and the tools associated with it is specific. Heaney applies assonance to emphasise the accuracy with which he ploughs the fields; “Narrowed and angled at the ground”, the repetition of the ‘a’ sound is short and harsh, mirroring the sound of the blade cutting through the ‘sod’.

Paragraph B:Heaney uses technical, agricultural terms, the ‘shafts’ and ‘headrig’ are prime examples of this. Using this semantic field gives the reader the impression that Heaney’s father uses the specialist equipment while carrying out his work, to get the best results from his land, showing his experience and skill.

Paragraph C:The present participles such as ‘stumbling’ and ‘dipping and rising’ give a defined sense of closeness to the action – as though the we, the reader, are in the field with Heaney and his father. The use of onomatopoeia such as ‘clicking tongue’ and ‘yapping’ add to this sense immediacy, allowing us to imagine the sounds surrounding them.

• Point: Topic sentence with an adjective.

• Evidence: Quotation- try to embed it in the sentence.

• Explain: Select a keyword- why does it stand out?What is the effect on the reader?

• Language Analysis- Analyse what the word suggests & how it links back to the adjective.