The Follower by Seamus Heany
1. My father worked with a horse-plough
2. His shoulders globed like a full sail strung
3. Between the shafts and the furrow
4. The horse strained at his clicking tongue
5. An expert. He would set the wing
6. And fit the bright steel-pointed sock.
7. The sod rolled over without breaking.
8. At the headrig, with a single pluck
9. Of reins, the sweating team turned round
10. and back into the land. His eye
11. Narrowed and angled at the ground,
12. Mapping the furrow exactly.
13. I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake,
14. Fell sometimes on the polished sod;
15. Sometimes he rode me on his back
16. Dipping and rising to his plod.
17. I wanted to grow up and plough,
18. To close one eye, stiffen my arm.
19. All I ever did was follow
20. In his broad shadow round the farm.
21. I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,
22. Yapping, always. But today
23. It was my father who keeps stumbling
24. Behind me, and will not go away.
Line 1
My father worked with a horse-plough
Line 2&3
His shoulders globed like a full sail strung
Between the shafts and the furrow.
The poem ______the image of sailing.
The shoulders of the farmer (father) ______compared with the sail of a ship.
Shaft: handles of the plough.
Furrows: trench made ______the soil ______the plough.
The image can be explained like this: the shoulders of the man ______like a sail that ______strung ______between the shafts and the furrow.
Line 4
The horse strained at his clicking tongue
The father ______very ______at the ploughing.
He ______his commands to the horse ______only clicking his tongue.
Strained: tense
The horse ______when the man ______tonge which ______the horse understood the instructions.
The father could ______the horse ______only clicking his tongue.
Line 5 &6
An expert. He would set the wing
And fit the bright steel-pointed sock.
An expert: the poet re-______that the father ______an expert ______ploughing.
Wing: the big part ______the blade ______the ploughshare.
Sock: the small part ______the blade that cuts the soil.
His father would ______sure that the blade ______the plough ______the soil correctly so that deep, neat furrows ______formed.
Line 7
The sod rolled over without breaking
His father ______deep. This ______also that his father had great strength.
The plough ______in so deep that the soil ______over without breaking.
Sod: soil
Line 8-10
At the headrig, with a single pluck
Of reins, the sweating team turned around
And back into the land
Headrig: harness around the head of the horses.
With a single pluck the team ______around
Team: team of two horses or the father and the horse.
Sweating: this work ______you tired. The horse and the father ______tired.
Line 10-12
His eye
Narrowed and angled at the ground,
Mapping the furrow exactly.
The father measured the direction ______his eye.
Mapping: plot the direction.
He could look ______the ground with his eye and successfully plough ______a straight line.
Furrow: trench made ______the plough ______the ground
Image of sailing
Mapping: A captain would map out ______course on a map. The ship would then ______the course plotted out ______the map. The father ______like the captain, he ______the route they take.
Line 13-14
I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake,
Fell sometimes on the polished sod;
I: the boy
Hob-nailed: the father w______ore hob-nailed boots.
Wake: be behind someone
The boy ______his father and all he could see was ______father’s boots. The boots ______metal studs at the bottom.
Stumbled/fell: ______the clumsiness of the boy. It ______a strong contrast with ______expert farmer navigating the land effortlessly.
Polished sod: the soil ______a shiny, polished look when the plough ______it over.
Line 15-16
Sometimes he rode me on his back
Dipping and rising to his plod.
The father ______sometimes ______the boy while he was ploughing and carry ______on his back.
Plod: walk ______but steadily. ______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.
Line 17-18
I wanted to grow up and plough,
To close one eye, stiffen my arm.
The boy ______that it was ______dream to be just like his father.
He wanted to ______like his father.
He also wanted to ______one eye when he ______the furrow.
He also wanted to ______his arm when the horse ______to pull the plough.
Line 19-20
All I ever did was follow
In his brad shadow round the farm.
The boy ______here that he ______useless on the farm. All he ever ______was to follow the broad shadow of his father around the farm.
Broad shadow: ______the strength of the father.
Line 21-22
I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,
Yapping always
The boy ______not useful. He uses three words to describe his incompetence:
Nuisance: in the way, bothering someone
Tripping
Falling
Yapping: the boy ______always talking. Yapping ______to nonsense talk. Talk continuously about unimportant things.
Line 22-24
But today
It was my father who keeps stumbling
Behind me, and will not go away.
Today: take note of the change in time.
Everything ______now reversed. The father ______become as clumsy as the boy was when he was young. The father ______now the nuisance. The father is now the one, following the boy, and like the boy he will not go away.
The boy ______become the strong farmer. He ______what his father was.
Events went full circle.