Billy Elliot 2

The poem is based on a strong father-son relationship which is contrasted by the film Billy Elliot. In the poem, the Boy seeks ambition through his father whom he sees as God-like and a great encouragement.

Analysis of
FOLLOWER
by Seamus Heaney
An analysis of "Follower" by Seamus Heaney "Follower" is a poem which relates back to Seamus Heaney's past memories which he had experienced when he was at a younger age, they are memories of him and hisfather and their relationship. From the poem we can interpret that he was brought up on a potato farm and inmany of his other poems he relates to this, this suggests that perhaps he enjoyed farming or perhaps he isexpressing the family's traditions. "Follower" is a poem which strongly relates to Heaney's past life. The poem also suggests the theme of growth, at the beginning of the poem he is a young boy, who looks up to hisfather. However, by the end of the poem it is his father who needs help from his son. The first three stanzasof the poem are written in the third person with all words relating to his father as 'he' or 'his'. But there is achange in the fourth stanza and from then on until the end of the poem, it is written in the first person withonly one reference in the whole of the last two verses to his father as 'him'. The tone of the poem is quitereminiscent and it is obvious that the poet when he was young was in awe of his father. 'Follower' is a poemwhich relates to his past life which can be regarded as a big space of time. This gap in time can be noticed bythe regularity of the poem. The structure of the poem has an even number of four line stanzas and acombination of six stanzas in total. There are about five sets of imagery in the poem, often the imagery in'Follower' is based on the appearance of his father. For example in the first stanza on the second line he haswritten: 'His shoulders globed like a full sail strung Between the shafts and the furrow' This means that hisfather looks like a full