follower and mother any distance Flashcards
introduction
both ‘Follower’ and ‘Mother, any distance’ feature the themes of familial love through parent-child relationships both poets expressing a sense of reflection as they explore the inevitability of growing up and moving away from their parents, due to changes in their relationships and lives
paragraph 1 - follower
In Follower, Heaney expresses a deep admiration and a sense of respect towards his father. However, he also expresses a sense of inadequacy and sadness when reflecting on their relationship as father and son as now that he has grown older, the roles have reversed and now his father is the one stumbling behind him. This is clear when Heaney switches to the present and says “But today, it is my father who keeps stumbling behind me”. This illustrates the role reversal, as the narrative shifts at ‘But today’ as we are taken away from his recollection of childhood memories and are brought into the reality that is the present where his father is much older and frailer, emphasising the key ideas of the title, “follower” as now the father has become the follower, not Heaney. The use of caesura highlights the change to the present tense being sudden and unexpected, which may reflect how heaney feels about the inevitability of ageing and change through role reversal of his father and himself. As in old age, his father has almost become a child again, helpless and incapable of taking care of himself which contrasts to the man who was once “like a full sail strung” who heaney idolised with utter admiration and respect with an image of a helpless ageing one which is quite distressing for Heaney. In particular, the word ‘stumbling’ is repeated but this affixed to his father which highlights the cyclical form of the poem and nature of the parent-child relationship that has changed which is represented as the circle of life as ageing is evitable for our parents as they will grow old and no longer be the heroes we had portrayed them to be as children. Also, ‘stumbling’ is a half-rhyme showing the father-son relationship that slowly disappeared due to ageing and the conflicting feelings that adult heaney feels as he is frustrated by his father’a dependence on him, having seen him as a leader, a role-model since he was very young. However, an alternative interpretation could be that as in the same way young heaney would not leave his father because of his devotion and admiration, the father is mimicking his son in old age as heaney tenderly comes to terms with the role switching and their parent-child dynamic. This gives the readers a glimpse of the conflicting feelings that heaney feels over the changing in roles and relationships in his family. Heaney cleverly crafts out a thought provoking conclusion which makes us the readers contemplate the effects of ageing on not only the father-son dynamic but in our own lives as well
