Seamus Heaney & Tony Curtis

Seamus Heaney & Tony Curtis

On initial reading both the Follower and Strongman are simply about a

son's relationship with their father. Whilst this relationship is a

central theme of both poems, the poems also explore a range of issues

including cultural identity, guilt and social class. This essay will

attempt to analyse both poems individually and to also identify areas

of conflict and similarity between the poems.

The first two words of Follower by Seamus Heaney are "My father" which

immediately establishes the poet's emotionally involved relationship

with the subject of the poem. In contrast the poet of Strongman writes

in the third person for the majority of the poem and it is only really

in the last two lines that the poet establishes that he is addressing

the poem to the son.

Both poems create a vivid picture of physically strong fathers who

draw on their physical strength by undertaking skilled manual jobs to

support their families "My father worked with a horse-plough" and "A

carpenter who could punch nails into wood with a clench fist". Seamus

Heaney employs the use of a number of sea images in helping the reader

to visualise the immense strength and stamina of his father's body

"His shoulders globed like a full sail strung" and "Sometimes he rode

me . Dipping and rising to his plod". Similarly Tony Curtis employs

powerful visual imagery to illustrate the father in his poem as the

pivot of a roundabout with his five sons as seats/chairs swinging from

his arms as he "would stretch his arms and hang his five sons from

them, turning like a roundabout". This is a very successful simile as

it encapsulates the swinging motion of the father playing with his

children and on a deeper note the fathe...

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...man focuses on the reversed roles of the

father and son. The original role of the father as the provider and

central axis in the family has now disappeared to the extent that it

is now the son who not only cares for the father physically but also

emotionally as he reassures the father with "No trouble - he said, no

trouble, Dad". The final likes of the poem encapsulate the indignities

of sickness and old age. The use of minimalist, stark language,

without the use of unnecessary adjectives heightens the poignancy of

the last lines.

In conclusion both Follower and Strongman are brief but effective

poems that successfully portray father - son relationships. The

readers are allowed an intimate snapshot/glimpse into these

relationships. Both poems describe the permanent bonds between fathers

and sons whilst also effectively addressing how these bonds evolve.