Seamus Heaney's "Follower" appears in his first major poetry collection, Death of a Naturalist, which was published in 1966 and brought the young poet a great deal of critical attention. The volume is understood to be a largely autobiographical meditation on Heaney's childhood in County Derry, Northern Ireland. Like Heaney, the speaker in "Follower" is a farmer’s son who finds beauty and value in traditional farming practices but struggles to take them up himself. The poem touches on themes that appear throughout Heaney’s work, such as family dynamics, agricultural work, and Irish identity.
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The Full Text of “Follower”
The Full Text of “Follower”
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“Follower” Summary
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“Follower” Themes
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The Relationship Between Parents and Children
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-24
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The Virtue and Nobility of Farming
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-24
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Follower”
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Lines 1-3
My father worked ...
... and the furrow. -
Lines 4-7
The horses strained ...
... over without breaking. -
Lines 8-12
At the headrig, ...
... the furrow exactly. -
Lines 13-16
I stumbled in ...
... to his plod. -
Lines 17-22
I wanted to ...
... Yapping always. -
Lines 22-24
But today ...
... not go away.
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“Follower” Symbols
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Ships and Navigation
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 2-3: “His shoulders globed like a full sail strung / Between the shafts and the furrow.”
- Line 7: “The sod rolled over without breaking.”
- Lines 10-12: “His eye / Narrowed and angled at the ground, / Mapping the furrow exactly.”
- Line 13: “his hobnailed wake”
- Lines 15-16: “Sometimes he rode me on his back / Dipping and rising to his plod.”
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“Follower” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 2: “ou,” “o”
- Line 4: “i,” “i,” “i”
- Line 6: “o”
- Line 7: “o,” “o”
- Line 8: “i,” “i,” “i”
- Line 14: “o,” “o,” “o”
- Line 15: “i”
- Line 16: “i,” “i,” “i,” “i”
- Line 18: “eye,” “y”
- Line 19: “A,” “I,” “o”
- Line 20: “oa”
- Line 23: “ee”
- Line 24: “e,” “e”
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Asyndeton
Where asyndeton appears in the poem:- Lines 1-2: “My father worked with a horse-plough, / His shoulders globed”
- Lines 13-14: “I stumbled in his hobnailed wake, / Fell sometimes”
- Lines 17-18: “I wanted to grow up and plough, / To close one eye, stiffen my arm.”
- Lines 21-22: “tripping, falling, / Yapping”
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Caesura
Where caesura appears in the poem:- Line 5: “expert. He”
- Line 8: “headrig, with”
- Line 9: “reins, the”
- Line 10: “land. His”
- Line 18: “eye, stiffen”
- Line 21: “nuisance, tripping, falling”
- Line 22: “always. But”
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Consonance
Where consonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “f,” “w,” “w,” “s,” “l”
- Line 2: “sh,” “l,” “s,” “l,” “l,” “f,” “ll,” “s,” “l,” “s,” “t”
- Line 3: “t,” “sh,” “f,” “t,” “s,” “f”
- Line 4: “s,” “s,” “s,” “t,” “t,” “t”
- Line 5: “x,” “t,” “w,” “s,” “t,” “w”
- Line 6: “t,” “t,” “s,” “t,” “t,” “s,” “ck”
- Line 7: “s,” “r,” “r,” “t,” “r,” “k”
- Line 8: “r,” “g,” “s,” “l,” “l,” “ck”
- Line 9: “r,” “s,” “t,” “t,” “t,” “r,” “n,” “d,” “r,” “n,” “d”
- Line 10: “nd,” “n,” “t,” “n,” “d”
- Line 11: “N,” “rr,” “d,” “n,” “d,” “g,” “d,” “g,” “r,” “n,” “d”
- Line 12: “rr”
- Line 13: “s,” “mb,” “l,” “d,” “h,” “s,” “h,” “b,” “l,” “d”
- Line 14: “ll,” “s,” “m,” “m,” “s,” “p,” “l,” “d,” “s,” “d”
- Line 15: “S,” “m,” “m,” “s,” “d,” “m,” “s”
- Line 16: “D,” “pp,” “s,” “s,” “p,” “l,” “d”
- Line 17: “t,” “t,” “p,” “p”
- Line 19: “ll,” “d,” “d,” “ll”
- Line 20: “r,” “d,” “d,” “r,” “d,” “r”
- Line 21: “pp,” “ll”
- Line 22: “pp,” “l,” “B,” “t,” “t”
- Line 23: “t,” “m,” “t,” “m,” “b”
- Line 24: “B,” “m,” “t”
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End-Stopped Line
Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:- Line 1: “horse-plough,”
- Line 3: “furrow.”
- Line 4: “tongue.”
- Line 6: “sock.”
- Line 7: “breaking.”
- Line 11: “ground,”
- Line 12: “exactly.”
- Line 13: “wake,”
- Line 14: “sod;”
- Line 16: “plod.”
- Line 17: “plough,”
- Line 18: “arm.”
- Line 20: “farm.”
- Line 21: “falling,”
- Line 24: “away.”
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Enjambment
Where enjambment appears in the poem:- Lines 2-3: “strung / Between”
- Lines 5-6: “wing / And”
- Lines 8-9: “pluck / Of”
- Lines 9-10: “round / And”
- Lines 10-11: “eye / Narrowed”
- Lines 15-16: “back / Dipping”
- Lines 19-20: “follow / In”
- Lines 22-23: “today / It”
- Lines 23-24: “stumbling / Behind”
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Irony
Where irony appears in the poem:- Lines 22-24: “But today / It is my father who keeps stumbling / Behind me, and will not go away.”
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Juxtaposition
Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:- Lines 12-13: “Mapping the furrow exactly. / I stumbled in his hobnailed wake,”
- Lines 17-19: “I wanted to grow up and plough, / To close one eye, stiffen my arm. / All I ever did was follow”
- Lines 21-24: “I was a nuisance, tripping, falling, / Yapping always. But today / It is my father who keeps stumbling / Behind me, and will not go away.”
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Onomatopoeia
Where onomatopoeia appears in the poem:- Line 4: “clicking”
- Line 8: “pluck”
- Line 22: “Yapping”
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Parallelism
Where parallelism appears in the poem:- Line 1: “My father worked”
- Line 2: “His shoulders globed”
- Line 4: “The horses strained”
- Line 5: “He would set”
- Line 7: “The sod rolled”
- Lines 10-11: “His eye / Narrowed”
- Line 13: “I stumbled”
- Line 17: “to grow up and plough”
- Line 18: “To close one eye”
- Line 21: “I was”
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Repetition
Where repetition appears in the poem:- Line 1: “father,” “plough”
- Line 3: “furrow”
- Line 7: “sod”
- Line 10: “eye”
- Line 12: “furrow”
- Line 13: “I stumbled”
- Line 14: “sometimes,” “sod”
- Line 15: “Sometimes”
- Line 17: “I wanted,” “plough”
- Line 18: “eye”
- Line 19: “All I ever did”
- Line 21: “I was”
- Line 23: “father,” “stumbling”
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Simile
Where simile appears in the poem:- Lines 2-3: “His shoulders globed like a full sail strung / Between the shafts and the furrow”
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“Follower” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Horse-plough
- Globed
- Shafts
- Furrow
- Clicking
- Wing
- Steel-pointed sock
- Sod
- Breaking
- Headrig
- Pluck
- Team
- Angled
- Mapping
- Hobnailed
- Wake
- Polished
- Plod
- Broad
- Yapping
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(Location in poem: Line 1: “horse-plough”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Follower”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Follower” Speaker
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“Follower” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Follower”
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More “Follower” Resources
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External Resources
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A Biography of Seamus Heaney — An overview of Heaney's life and work that pays special attention to his early years.
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Seamus Heaney Reads "Follower" — Listen to the author read the poem aloud.
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A Documentary on Irish Farming Traditions — The first several minutes of this video (2:10-6:00) show a farmer working with an antique horse plow. The documentary goes on to describe the tools that replaced traditional plows.
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Heaney's Annotations in Death of a Naturalist — Images of a copy of Heaney's first book, Death of Naturalist, which he annotated. This includes a short annotation of "Follower."
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The Belfast Group — An overview of the Belfast Group from Emory University, which houses the largest collection of Heaney's literary archive, per his donation.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Seamus Heaney
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