Analysis Of The Poem Follower By Seamus Heaney

Isabella Gonzalez

Ms. Rowe

IB English

15 January 2016

Father and Son

Ever since children are young growing up and becoming an adult is something that children cannot wait for while it is something their parents dread. Seamus Heaney published his poem Follower in 1966 in his book Death of a Naturalist. Follower mostly takes place in the past where Heaney viewed his father as role model and wanted to be like him. Heaney was his father's shadow, but as time progressed his father then in turn became his follower and his shadow. Heaney published another poem titled The Harvest Bow in 1979. In The Harvest Bow Heaney talks about his memories of his father plating and making a bow out of wheat, something he did very often

while he sat there and watched. In both Follower and The Harvest Bow there seems to be a recurring theme of the cycle of life and how whether someone acknowledges or not aging and death is something inevitable in life. Another theme present in both poem is father and son relations, in both poems Heaney starts his poems by describing himself as subordinate to his father, while as both poems progress, Heaney is now the one in power and strong, the roles have switched and Heaney is now strong like his father used to be and his father is now weak and small like Heaney used to be. The author built the theme of the cycle of life by using imagery, structure and progression.
Imagery is the use of figurative language to appeal to the senses of the reader, it also allows the reader to paint a mental picture.

In Heaney's poems imagery is very important in trying to get the reader to understand the poem itself. In The Harvest Bow Seamus Heaney uses a lot of golden and or shining imagery. The use of golden imagery gives a sense of importance and a sense of status within Heaney and his father Patrick. “But it brightens as it tightens twist by twist/Into a knowable corone/A throwaway love-knot of straw”. In Spanish corona means crown and crowns are usually worn by royalty, using the word corona can exemplify the feelings of highness, respect and love Heaney has toward his father. Furthermore, when Jesus died on the cross he was wearing a crown of thorns, since Heaney was grew up in a religious household and since this poem is a proleptic elegy, him including the death of Jesus Christ can symbolize that he was come to terms with the inevitable death of his

father.
In the beginning of Follower Seamus Heaney describes his father as a very strong muscular man. “His shoulders globed like a full sail strung”. Heaney paints a picture in the reader's mind of how strong and how hard working his father is. Conversely, the last stanza of the poem is the complete opposite of the beginning. As the poem progresses the reader can sense the aging process humans go through, children grow up, parents get older and Heaney describing his father as a nuisance, tripping and falling as he was when he was younger, this goes against what he stated in the beginning of the poem describing his father as strong and muscular. “I was a nuisance, tripping, falling/yapping always. But today/It is my father who keeps stumbling/Behind me, and will not go away” This quote symbolizes the cycle of life, first is was Heaney who was admiring his father for his strength and seeing him as a role model now, years later it is his father, Patrick Heaney who sees him as such.
The two example of imagery further reiterate the idea of the cycle of life, everyone grows up, everyone dies and whether it is accepted or not lies on the interpretation of life. Heaney in Follower seems to have negative feelings about his father becoming his follower which can result from the expectations from childhood he had of his father. Heaney in the poem Follower is not willing to accept the cycle of life, he has a schema for what his father is supposed to be and when his father does not fit that scheme anymore he rejects his father and who he has become. The use of the word corona in The Harvest Bow had a big impact in the story because unlike Follower Heaney seems to be accepting of the inevitable fate his father will face.
Progression is how something develops throughout a period of time. In Heaney's poetry, it was a very important aspect to understanding in order to grasp the underlying theme of the cycle of life. In Follower the poem begins with Heaney speaking highly about his father, calling him strong and muscular and outlining all the positive aspects of his father. As the poem continues it seems as though Heaney's infatuation for his father is growing. Heaney states that he wanted to be exactly lie his father, strong. “I wanted to grow up and plough,/To close one eyes, stiffen my arm./All I ever did was follow/In his broad shadow round the farm.” Heaney's desire for wanting to be like his father created expectations that in the end his father could not fulfill. Due to the fact that these expectations were not fulfilled this gave Heaney a reason to blame his father for not fulfilling them when in reality his father could not fulfill them anymore because he was not the man he used to be, he grew old and weary and that was something Heaney did not understand. Although as the poem progresses and Heaney seems to grow up, meaning in age, in the last stanza there seems to be a tone of infantility, impatience and lack of understanding. Which can symbolize that he has not come to terms with the fact that his father is getting older and could possibly pass away in the future.
In The Harvest Bow Heaney takes the reader through one of the loops in the bow which is supposed to symbolize the loops and memories of Seamus Heaney and his father Patrick. “And if I spy into its golden loops/I see us walk between the railway slopes/Into an evening of long grass and midges” Heaney is remembering all of the good times spent with his father and all the memories they made together. In the last stanza Heaney is anticipating the death of his father which gives the last stanza a sad and mournful tone. “That I have pinned up on our deal dresser/like a drawn snare” Heaney is again reflecting on the loss of his father and the word snare, is a way to symbolically represent that it is trapping and conserving all the memories they had together. Heaney in The Harvest Bow is more understanding of the inevitable life cycle which concludes with death
To conclude Heaney in The Harvest Bow seems to be more understanding of the possible death of his father than in Follower.

There is only one certain thing in life and it is death, and that is something that human beings have to come to terms with. Heaney's use of imagery, especially in The Harvest Bow let the reader interpret what he was trying to communicate which was he had come to terms with the death of his father. Seamus Heaney's word choice was also a very important aspect in grasping the theme of the cycle of life, words like Corona and Nuisance in two different poems gave an understanding of where he stood when writing the poems. Lastly, progression was very important because it gives a timeline of sentiments and an inside look on how the poet feels about a certain topic and in this case was the cycle of life or more specifically

death.