FOLLOWER and EDEN ROCK Flashcards
'’Follower’’ and ‘‘Eden Rock’’ both present ideas about familial relationships….
Through the perspective of the child. However, ‘‘Follower’’ also explores ideas about the negative aspects in familial relationships, whereas, ‘‘Eden Rock’’ focuses mainly on the positive aspects.
In both poems, the speakers undeniably admire their parent(s). In ‘Follower’ the speakers father is an ‘expert’ farmer who works with a ‘horse plough’ and the child longs to follow in his footsteps. This admiration is shown….
..Through the minor sentence ‘An expert.’ which creates a sense of finality; the full stop suggests that there is no questioning the fathers skill, hence there is no questioning why the speaker admires his father.
The poets use of an extended metaphor of sailing also enhances the idea that…
… the father is everything to his child. The father is not only described as the ship itself (‘Full sail strung’) but also as the captain of the ship. This portrays the father as extremely skilled in his craft and also creates the sense that the father is the child’s entire world. He is the one who leads the metaphorical ship of life, setting the pathway for his child, guiding and mentoring him along the way which shows the relationship to be one of love and support.
‘Eden Rock’ presents a memory of the speakers parents in a positive way through…
the use of natural imagery such as ‘stone’ ‘grass’ and ‘straw’. Perhaps, this natural imagery reflects the way the speaker sees the familial relationship to be pure and natural.
This clean and unspoilt setting is exemplified when the speaker claims that..
… his mothers hair ‘takes on the light’. Light has connotations of heaven, perhaps reflecting the way the speaker sees his parents as angelic and saint-like which shows a strong admiration for the parents.
Additionally, the title of the poem undoubtedly references the bible, in particular…
.. the garden of Eden from which mankind was essentially created.
This bible reference may also be seen as a reflection…
… of the speakers gratitude for his parents; they are what gave him life and so they are responsible for the seemingly perfect childhood he remembers. Alternatively, the bible reference may be linked to the fact that Causley’s father died when he was seven, therefore the poem could be seven to be commenting on the afterlife.