Follower
Follower is a poem written by Seamus Heaney that uses vivid and powerful imagery to describe the bond between a father and son. In this poem the son respects and revers his father and wants to be just like him and grow up and plough in the fields just like. He tries his best to do this however, he isn’t that skilled at this and falls into issues because he keeps tripping and falling. Ext. What makes this poem unique is because Heaney hasn’t written in one perspective throughout but by two. Each character from the poem expressed their own side to show us a more in depth understanding to both sides.
Firstly, this poem’s intro begins with the son looking at his father and trying to explain to we the readers as how great he is at doing his job. The son explains his father’s strength by using an interesting simile ‘his shoulders globed like a full sail strung’ this is a very vivid description because a full sail stung is when the tarp for it is pushed out to
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capture the wind and push the boat. It takes a great deal of power to push a boat because of its mass, which is why this simile is interesting. Then it continues to say that his shoulders globed. This also implies that he has big muscles because the idea behind it are big round muscles Secondly the son continues describing his fathers with the idea that how he does his work is truly astounding to him. The son looks intently at what his father does and how he does hard tasks with ease, I know this because the son explains ‘the sod rolled over without breaking’ sod is the earth and earth isn’t a very strong substance, it is fragile and tears apart in your hands and for the father to be rolling it over without breaking is a skill that the son revers in him. Furthermore, there is an underlining general tone there that shows that even if the father could do this he might not care about, but he does. This shows that he takes pride in his wok and will only give his best Lastly there is a role reversal in the poem that starts in the fourth paragraph when the writer starts with the word ‘I this word this also appears in all the other paragraphs downward from it as well.
but you may not notice the change in perspectives until Heaney writes ‘But today it is my father who keeps stumbling……. And will not go away’ this line shows that the son who was always the one tripping and falling and lagging behind his father is finally the one in the lead. But the poem further stats that the son is getting irritated by the father because he won’t go away, he finally understands that this is what he was like to him when he was younger.
In the end this poem deals with the love and mutual respect between the father and son and explains this using both father and son’s perspectives to execute it to give us an all rounded idea of both of them. Finally, Follower is an interesting story with great uses of vivid imagery as I have explained above with also great themes and ideas as
well.
In the poem ¨My Father¨ by Scott Hightower, the author describes a rather unstable relationship with his now deceased father. Scott describes his father as a mix of both amazing and atrocious traits. The father is described as someone who constantly contradicts himself through his actions. He is never in between but either loving and heroic or cold and passive. The relationship between Scott and his father is shown to be always changing depending on the father’s mood towards him. He sees his father as the reason he now does certain things he finds bad. But at the end of it all, he owes a great deal to his father. Scott expresses that despite his flaws, his father helped shape the man he is today. Hightower uses certain diction, style, and imagery to
There is no greater bond then a boy and his father, the significant importance of having a father through your young life can help mold you to who you want to become without having emotional distraught or the fear of being neglected. This poem shows the importance in between the lines of how much love is deeply rooted between these two. In a boys life he must look up to his father as a mentor and his best friend, the father teaches the son as much as he can throughout his experience in life and build a strong relationship along the way. As the boy grows up after learning everything his father has taught him, he can provide help for his father at his old-age if problems were to come up in each others
Heaney does not describe his father and grandfather as rough, unclean men that are practicing hard labour. Rather they are described as artists performing a ritual. Heaney's father digs in a "rhythm" (8), which creates a beautiful image of a man that is doing something meaningful for himself. The words "nestled" (10) and "levered firmly" (11) suggest the professionalism of Heaney's father and establishes the idea of him as an artist and not a...
Beowulf is a poem translated by Seamus Heaney that tells the story of the protagonist named Beowulf. Beowulf was warrior who had the strength of many men. He had grown up and molded himself to fulfill the role of a hero, throughout many occasions. Everytime he had finished a remarkable feat, it was subjected as evidence which was always there showcasing his accomplishments, godsend strength, and loyalty as a leader. Even in the most difficult situations, Beowulf had the courageousness to be side by side with God, letting him be victorious than anyone had ever
The poem Follower by Seamus Heaney is about the cycle of life between child and parent. Child always follow the parent, who he admires and look up to. As the child is growing up, he learns how to do things on his own and he does not need his mentor anymore. When thy cycle of parent's life comes to an end, parent and child are switching their roles and the child takes care of parent, who now is the follower.
To explore the ways in which the poets present relationships, I selected three different poems: ‘Nettles’ by Vernon Scannell; ‘Praise Song for my Mother’ by Grace Nichols; and ‘Harmonium’ by Simon Armitage. Each of these poems develops relationships, but all show a different relationship between an offspring and a Parent. To understand these different perspectives of relationship, it is important to understand the culture from which these came from. Simon Armitage is from England, Marsden which is a large village in West Yorkshire. Scannell also comes from England, from a small market town called Spilsby. Different from the two, Grace Nichols comes from Guyana, South America, in a small rural village. These different cultures may show a different understanding of relationships.
Many times poetry is reflective of the author’s past as well as their personal struggles. One struggle that poets write about is of identity and the creation, as well as loss, of individual identities. Using a passage from the essay Lava Cameo by Eavan Boland, I will show how two poets use their craft to describe their struggle with identity. Eavan Boland and Seamus Heaney both write poems which express an internal struggle with roles of identity and how they recreate their roles to fit their needs. Through retrospection and reflection, both poets come to realize that the roles they led as well as those they reinvented have created their own personal identities. Boland, in her essay Lava Cameo, touches on several emotions (loss, despair, etc) and episodes in her life which capture the essence of her identity. It is this notion of individual identity that is a central theme throughout Boland’s essay and some of her poems. Boland, through retrospection and hindsight, has been able to recognize the roles that society has dictated that she follow. These roles were not necessarily created for any rational reason (ex: female role as subordinate and even as marital property). One passage in particular captures the internal struggles Boland has endured. This passage runs from pages 27 to 29 in Boland’s Object Lessons. It begins by saying, "It may not be that women poets of another generation…" and ends with "…but because of poetry."
The author uses imagery, contrasting diction, tones, and symbols in the poem to show two very different sides of the parent-child relationship. The poem’s theme is that even though parents and teenagers may have their disagreements, there is still an underlying love that binds the family together and helps them bridge their gap that is between them.
The shepherd in “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” the original poem of the series, is a romantic idealist who paints beautiful pictures for the girl he loves of “beds of roses” and riches. In contrast, the shepherd in “Song” seems almost pessimistic. He too paints a picture for the girl he loves, but his is of hardship, toil, and bitterness, not beauty and love. This difference in attitude completely changes the light in which each of the poems is viewed. Because of the light-hearted, romantic tones of “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” the reader experiences a similar dreamy, faraway mood. The reader of “Song”, however, feels only sadness and perhaps longing for a world of greater possibilities than the grim one the speaker describes in the poem.
The relationship between a father and his son can be articulated as without a doubt the most significant relationship that a man can have throughout the duration of his life. To a further extent the relationship between a father and a son can be more than just a simple companionship. Just like a clown fish and a sea anemone, both father and son will rely on each other in order to survive the struggles of their everyday lives. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Gabriele Muccino’s The Pursuit of Happyness both depict a story between a father and son using each other as a means of survival when faced with adversity. When placed in a tough situation father and son must create a symbiotic relationship in order to survive. Upon the duo of father and son can creating a symbiotic relationship, it will result in a mutual dependency on each other. This theme of paternal love is omnipresent given the bond between the two characters.
his poems to be able to see them in a different light and be able to
This work is a staple in British Literature, it has moral values that will never cease in our world. It has biblical allegories referring to Jesus Christ. The albatross hung around the neck refers to Jesus dying on the cross and The Mariner shooting the albatross is compared to Jesus. The sun and the moon symbolize God as does the Albatross. That in itself is a reason to use this book in life as It can really help one get moral values and live life to the fullest. This poem should be known as a moral lesson by everyone because the lessons told in this story are ones one should never forget.
For the poetry unit, I decided to study the works of the renowned Irish poet, critic, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, Seamus Heaney. I choose Heaney because he is rather contemporary author, most of his works published in the mid to late twentieth century, and his poems were simple yet beautiful. The voice that he uses to spin his tales is fundamentally human. In my opinion, Heaney does not put on fronts of human perfection, but chooses to focus on the simple joys that life provides. This can be seen in many of his poems such as “Lover of Aran”, in which he gives human characteristics to the beach and the sea to exemplify human love and compassion, as well as in “Personal Helicon”, where he harps on the beauty and simplicity of his childhood. He also wrote darker pieces such as “Act of Union” and “Docker”. “Act of Union” is appropriately named after the document that brought all of England’s conquests under the crown of Great Britain. The poem focuses on the political turmoil, between England and Ireland as it depicts an invasion of Irish soil. “Docker” speak...
The Irish poet, Seamus Heaney broadcasts his constant awe towards his family member’s abilities in a plethora of his poems. In the poem “Follower,” Heaney brags about his father being a digger and yearns to follow the family tradition, which in his poem “Digging” he gains closure by claiming that he can “dig” in his own sense by writing. In “Clearances #5,” the poet is in awe with his mother’s ability to make sheets out of mere flour sacks. Heaney’s work stresses the importance of family life through his continual uses of repetition and caesura.
rot. This may imply that he went berry picking just for the fun of it,