Critical Essay on ‘Follower’ Essay

A metrical com put which explores the paradoxs of growing honest-to-god is the verse form Follower by Seamus Heaney. This poem is to the highest degree Heaneys childhood memories of his bear working on the farm plowing the land. Heaney dress downs truly highly of his male p arent and creates the result of a dead substantial man who was an safe at what he done and a man who was his tidingss hero. It also talks more or less how Heaney used to follow his atomic number 91 virtu entirelyy as he worked and how he brainte of growing up and ploughing standardized his papa. However, there is a twist at the end of the poem and Heaney goes from talking to the highest degree how he was an annoyance to his soda water when he was junior moreover straight his dad is the annoyance to him as he is now old.In the first stanza, Heaney talks about his see and his work. He is talking rattling highly of his make and says, The horses strained at his lose iting tongue This quote interprets how his amaze was a man who was extremely skilful at his work as it shows how his fix could engage numerous watertight farm animals dead and with ease just by clicking his tongue, a truly troublesome thing to do using reasonable force never mind just by a simple gesture such(prenominal) of the click of his tongue. The flesh the reader gathers from this quote goes intimately with the take care of a heavy, well-built man that we spring up when Heaney writes,His shoulders globed identical a full canvas strungThese two quotes together erupt a very unsloped picture of Heaneys dad. Together they give the impression that his dad was a very dire figure to him and that he aspired to be worry him. It gives the image of the perfect male, a strong, lithe man that was an expert at his commerce and that was an immortal to his son. However, these hero- analogous images of his father when he was unripeer are dismissed later on in the poem when Heaney w rites about how his dad is no semipermanent the big strong man that is an idol to young males but the complete opposite, soulfulness who is annoying and in the way of him rather than being mortal who he looks up to, follows around and aspires to be. These confirming quotes of the young strong man and the electro disconfirming image created by the persist stanza go hand in hand to show the problems of growing onetime(a).The same kind of idea of the negative points of growing old are keep in to the here and now stanza when Heaney continues to talk about how his dad was so lots of an idol to him and how his dad was someone to be looked up to and to aspire to be like when he was younger and in his height in this stanza. This time Heaney says,An expert. He would sink the wingThis is a very regent(postnominal) describe. The short sentence of only two words to start off the stanza is very effective as it gives the impression that his father wasnt only very good at his credit line but he was an expert, he was the best. This is erst again exhibit how his father was so practically of an idol to him and that he was a very honourable stereotypical perfect father when he was younger as it shows how good his father was at his job. The second part of the line shows that his father knew but what he was doing and gives us the impression that his father took his job very seriously and that he was very precise and slim downd when doing anything in his job such as setting the wing. The idea of his dad being so good at his job and being able to do it with ease is continued when Heaney writes,The sod rolling over without breaking.At the headmanrig, with a undivided pluckThe quotes without breaking and with a item-by-item pluck reinforce the idea that his dad was an expert at his job as they show that he could do effortful work with ease and that he knew exactly what he was doing and that he could do it perfectly if he could turn soil without it until now b reaking and control his animals with a oneness pluck. Once again it is the negative image of his father given in the last stanza as he is older that shows the negative effects of growing older as it is so different from the image you gather from the first two stanzas completely about how good his father was at his job and how strong his father was and how much of an idol his father was to him when he was younger.The image of his father being so strong and good at his job in his youth is continued throughout the abutting three stanzas. The idea of him being an expert and being someone to look up to who was strong and almost perfect is continued through the continued use of quotes such as,the pass teamThis shows that the work was not easy. If the team of strong farm horses that where doing the job were sweating and tired you could only surmise how much sweat and effort Heaneys father would have to seat in to the work. It thus continues to talk about his expertness in the job as it says things such as,Narrowed and angled at the ground, use the furrow exactly.The first line shows how his father took his work very seriously and that he was very precise in what he done and that he made real he done it to a good standard therefore he had to c formerlyntrate greatly on what he was doing. The second line also reinstates the fact that he was an expert at his work as it shows how he mapped the furrow in his head and made sure it was exact once again showing that he took it very seriously and had pride in his work. Heaney then goes on to write,Sometimes he rode me on his foulThis gives the impression that his father was the supreme as he has talked about how hard his work was when he wrote about the sweating team and he was talked about how much effort and concentration that he had to put in to his work but he says how he still even managed to hightail it his little son on his back while he did all of this. Something that would make the work even more harder an d longer and would make it harder to concentrate but he still did it. However, all these quotes can be compared to the last three or so lines that show the real problems of growing older. Al popular opinion he had listed all of these ordained things and even express how he literally followed in his fathers footsteps all day, he finishes of the poem by saying, however todayIt is my father who keeps stumblingBehind me, and pull up stakes not go away.This really cozy ups the problem of growing older as it shows how mint can just disregard someone when they get old regardless of what they thought of them when they were younger. Although Heaney had idolised his dad when he was young and wanted to be exactly like him and used to stumble behind his father and annoy him, now that it is Heaney in the position of having his father stumbling behind him and relying on him, Heaney doesnt even want to know him. This is truly quite a sad final stage to the poem as it really does highlight t he problems of growing older as it shows how it seems that once you are older and start relying on those younger than you who once relied in you they dont want to know you.So, as you can see, the author, Seamus Heaney has been very successful at exploring the problems of growing older in his poem Follower. Heaney does this by writing the broad majority of the poem about positive points about his dad when he was younger making him out to be a hero but then introducing a cruel twist in the last stanza about how even though he once idolised his dad and relied on him now that his dad relies on Heaney, he doesnt want to know him.