The Follower

By Seamus Heany

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 pluckOf 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.

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.

I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,Yapping aways.

But todayIt was my father who keeps stumblingBehind me, and will not go away.

My father worked with a horse-plough

His shoulders globed like a full sail strungBetween the shafts and the furrow.

The poem uses the image of sailing.

The shoulders of the farmer (father) is compared with the sail of a ship.

Shaft: handles of the plough

Furrows: trench made in the soil by the plough

The image can be explained like this: The

shoulders of the man is like a sail that is

strung out between the shafts and the furrow.

shafts

The horse strained at his clicking tongue.

The father was very skilled at ploughing.

He communicated his commands to the horse by only clicking his tongue.

strained: tense

The horse reacted when the man clicked his tongue which shows the horse understood the instructions.

The father could control the horse by only clicking his tongue.

An expert. He would set the wingAnd fit the bright steel-pointed sock.

An expert: the poet re-affirms that the father is an expert at ploughing.

wing: the big part of the blade of the ploughshare

sock: the small part of the blade that cuts the soil

His father would make sure that the blade of the plough entered the soil correctly so that deep, neat furrows are formed.

wing sock

The sod rolled over without breaking.

His father ploughed deep. This shows also that his father had great strength.

The plough went in so deep that the soil rolled over without breaking.

sod: soil

At the headrig, with a single pluckOf reins, the sweating team turned roundAnd back into the land.

headrig: harness around the head of the horses.

With a single pluck the team turned around.

team: team of two horses or father and horse.

sweating: this work makes you tired. The horse and the father are tired.

His eyeNarrowed and angled at the ground,Mapping the furrow exactly.

The father measured the direction with his eye.

mapping: plot the direction.

He could look at the ground with his eye and successfully plough in a straight line.

Furrow: trench made by the plough in the ground

Image of sailing

mapping: A captain would map out his course on a map. The ship would then sail the course plotted out on the map. The father is like the captain, he determines the route they take.

I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake,Fell sometimes on the polished sod;

•I: the boy

•Hob-nailed: the father wore hob-nailed boots.

•Wake: be behind someone

•The boy walked behind his father and all he could see was his father’s boots. The boots had metal studs at the bottom.

•Stumbled/fell: describes the clumsiness of the boy. It forms a strong contrast with this expert farmer navigating the land effortlessly.

•Polished sod: the soil gets a shiny, polished look when the plough turns it over.

Sometimes he rode me on his backDipping and rising to his plod.

The father would sometimes pick up the boy while he was ploughing and carry him on his back.

Plod: walk slowly but steadily. Shows how safe and strong the father is.

Imagery of sailing

Dipping and rising: when on a boat you dip and rise as the boat sails over the waves.

The boy has the same experience as his father walks over the furrows. The furrows are like the waves of the sea.

I wanted to grow up and plough,To close one eye, stiffen my arm.

The boy states that it was his dream to be just like his father.

He wanted to plough like his father.

He also wanted to close one eye when he mapped the furrow.

He also wanted to stiffen his arm when the horse started to pull the plough.

All I ever did was followIn his broad shadow round the farm.

The boy states here that he was useless on the farm. All he ever did was to follow the broad shadow of his father around the farm.

Broad shadow: reaffirms the strength of the father.

I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,Yapping aways.

The boy was not useful. He uses three words to describe his incompetence;

Nuisance: in the way, bothering someone

Tripping

Falling.

Yapping: the boy was always talking. Yapping refers to nonsense talk. Talk continuously about unimportant things.

But todayIt was my father who keeps stumblingBehind me, and will not go away.

Today: take note of the change in time

Everything is now reversed. The father has become as clumsy as the boy was when he was young. The father is now the nuisance. The father is now the one, following the boy, and like the boy he will not go away.

The boy has become the strong farmer. He became what his father was.

Events went full circle.