Follower Flashcards
Where was the poet born and raised?
C : April 1939 - August 2013
Eldest of 9 brothers, born in Northern Ireland to his father Patrick, a farmer and him mother Margret.
The basis of the poem is about a farmer
Give some comparisons to other poems
Before you were mine > admiration and relationship changing over time
Climbing my grandfather > strong family bonds
Mother, any distance > strong family bonds
What themes are in the poem?
Family relationships
Getting older
Nature
Admiration
Longing
Memory
What type of imagery is shown to present admiration?
Nautical imagery (by the sea) shows his fathers strength and skill as he’s represented to be like a boat, the sails , and captain
^^ he is everything to the boy
Gives some quotes which show how the boys father is now stumbling behind him
The ‘will not go away’ ‘behind me’
What’s the extended metaphor in the poem
His father is a ship emphasising his power and skill and portrays child’s huge admiration and the importance of father
These contrast to the boy
What type of rhymes are used
Mostly ABAB but some half-rhymes to show how the boy sometimes falls short of his father
‘Plough’ - ‘follow’ > this is when verses are about the boy and reflects how he can’t match the fathers perfect full rhyme father
Full rhyme = father
Half rhyme = son
How do the stanza structures shape
First 3- focus on father
Next 2- focus on boy stuff king to find his identity
Last stanza - role reversal - now father is following son
The boy is growing and becoming independent
What’s the idea at the end of the poem.what is the message
There is a good reversal which comes as a surprise and suggests there is no longer a powerful figure
It switches to present tense and narrators states how his father ‘will not go away’
What’s the structure called
Iambic tetramteter
Tightly ordered structure reflects tight ploughing and reflects boys admiration of father
Language
For the word follower
The changing meaning of the word portrays the changing relationship of the father and son
What could a message for the story be
The love the boy has for the father in the past could hint at the love of a lost way of life and how he cares for the past
The poem begins with a possessive pronoun “My” what does this suggest about the speakers relationship with the father
L-They are emotionally close but the son is very possessive of the father.
What poetic device is used and what does it suggest about the farmers relationship with animals
“The horse strained at the clicking of his tongue”
Onomatopoeia
“Clicking tongue” tells the reader that he is very controlling over the animals”
Why is there enjambment between stanza 2 and stanza 3
L+D-Reflects the smooth movement of the plough from one furrow to another each line of the poem is a different furrow
