Follower (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE English Literature): Revision Note
Exam code: 0475 & 0092
‘Follower’
Here is a detailed guide to Seamus Heaney’s poem 'Follower’, from the Songs of Ourselves Volume 1 anthology. It includes:
Overview: a line-by-line “translation” of the poem’s meanings and interpretations
Writer’s methods: an exploration of Heaney's poetic choices and potential effects
Understanding the text: an exploration of the themes and ideas within Heaney's poem
Overview
In order to answer an essay question on any poem, it is important to understand what it is about. This section includes:
An overview of the poem
A “translation” of the poem, section-by-section
A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Seamus Heaney’s intention and message
‘Follower’ overview
Seamus Heaney’s poem, ‘Follower’, is a reflection on a child and parent’s changing relationship. It explores how the power dynamics between a father and son shifts as their roles naturally reverse over time.
‘Follower’ breakdown
Lines 1-3
“My father worked with a horse-plough,
His shoulders globed like a full sail strung
Between the shafts and the furrow.”
Translation
A child speaker describes their father as a strong farmer with shoulders as wide and broad as a sail:
They seemed to take up the whole width of the ditch he is ploughing
Heaney’s intentions
Heaney’s first person (opens in a new tab) speaker describes the way they remember their father
Imagery (opens in a new tab) connotes to the father’s strength and natural ability to harness the elements, implying the child’s sense of awe for their father’s size and power
Lines 4-7
“The horses strained at his clicking tongue.
An expert. He would set the wing
And fit the bright steel-pointed sock.
The sod rolled over without breaking,”
Translation
The speaker describes their father managing a horse easily: he is an “expert”
The father is able to complete his farming tasks competently
Heaney’s intentions
By starting a new stanza (opens in a new tab) with the short phrase and caesura (opens in a new tab), Heaney draws attention to the father’s mastery (or expertise)
Heaney’s speaker remembers their father clearly and in detail, which highlights the influence he had on his son as a child watching him go about his daily work
Lines 8-12
“At the headrig, with a single pluck
Of reins, the sweating team turned round
And back into the land. His eye
Narrowed and angled at the ground,
Mapping the furrow exactly.”
Translation
The speaker’s memory of their father is vivid: each movement or gesture is detailed:
The father easily directs the horses with a “single pluck” of the “reins”
Both the father and horse have been working hard and are “sweating”
He carefully plans where to dig the “furrow” or trench
Heaney’s intentions
Heaney illustrates the power of memory as his speaker remembers his father in present tense verbs, as if he is there watching his father “mapping” and “sweating”
Again, the speaker remembers how exacting and careful his father is, which implies a sense of pride in his work
Lines 13-16
“I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake,
Fell sometimes on the polished sod;
Sometimes he rode me on his back
Dipping and rising to his plod.”
Translation
The speaker remembers themselves as a child, and how they struggled to keep up with their father, especially the tracks of his father’s boots (his “hob-nailed wake”)
When the child fell, the father would put the child on his shoulders and he would bounce to the “dipping and rising” of his footsteps (“plod”)
Heaney’s intentions
The poem’s tender memory of a child trying to keep up with their father conveys a sense of nostalgia
Heaney uses the symbolic ideas of a child in his father’s large footsteps to suggest the speaker is intimidated by their father’s “polished” work and large stature:
Heaney begins to introduce imbalances in relationships between child and parent and, specifically, a son under his father’s critical eye
Lines 17-20
“I wanted to grow up and plough,
To close one eye, stiffen my arm.
All I ever did was follow
In his broad shadow round the farm.”
Translation
The voice of an adult speaker reflects on their feelings as a child
The child wanted to become a good farmer and emulate their father, but they only ever followed in his large “shadow”, implying the son was unable to be like his father
Heaney’s intentions
Heaney illustrates, through the speaker’s reflection, how traditional expectations of sons becoming their fathers may cause tension in family relationships
Heaney also raises the question of traditional masculine roles with characteristics such as physical strength and stoic discipline
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."
Translation
The speaker accepts that their youthful enthusiasm and limited physical abilities must have been a “nuisance”, or an annoyance, to their father
However, the poem ends with a sudden shift in perspective as the speaker returns to present day (“was” becomes “is”):
The son is now an adult and their father has grown weak and dependent, just like they were when they were little
Heaney’s intentions
Heaney’s speaker reflects on how changing power imbalances between father and son happen naturally over time
Heaney’s poem concludes with a suddenly impatient speaker
There is a sense of irony (opens in a new tab) as the child is now stronger and more able than their father:
Present tense verbs, “tripping”, “falling” and “yapping”, describe the child’s weaknesses, but now the father is “stumbling” and following his son around
Examiner Tips and Tricks
In the CIE Literature for English poetry mark scheme, analysis is rewarded when your answer gives a close exploration of how aspects of form and/or structure and/or language reveal the speaker’s attitudes. For instance, in Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Follower’, the poet uses a childhood memory to illustrate tensions between fathers and sons.
Writer's methods
Although this section is organised into form, structure, and language, it is worth remembering that all of these are considered “writer’s methods” in the CIE Literature for English poetry mark scheme. With this in mind, consider the poet’s choice of form (the way the poem looks or the type of poem it is), its structure (especially how it ends: is it cyclical or resolved?) and, of course, the language used to create effect and, thus, meaning.
By focusing on the poet’s overarching ideas rather than identifying poetic techniques or translating quotes, you will gain far more marks. That is why all the analysis below is arranged by theme and includes Seamus Heaney’s intentions in terms of his choices of:
Form
Structure
Language
Form
Seamus Heaney’s speaker reflects on their childhood in a ballad (opens in a new tab). The regular and steady form reflects the father’s sense of order and efficiency.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
|---|---|---|
Family love | The poem is divided into six regular quatrains (opens in a new tab) with regular line lengths | Heaney’s disciplined form helps to convey the memory of the speaker’s reliable and exacting father and, perhaps, the idea of rigid fatherly expectations |
Structure
Heaney’s speaker is reflective as he remembers his childhood but, at times, the voice is broken to reveal tensions between the father and son.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
|---|---|---|
Individual identity | The poem’s iambic tetrameter, with pauses at the end of most lines, creates a bouncing and steady rhythm, but this is broken with caesura (opens in a new tab) and enjambment (opens in a new tab) when the speaker’s tension rises, such as in “Yapping always. But today” | Heaney delivers ideas about the complexities of growing up: the child speaker simultaneously admires and feels intimidated by their father and, by the end, is ironically annoyed by his dependence |
Language
Seamus Heaney’s poem describes the vivid memory of a child as they watch their father work. The poem portrays the strong influence of parent and child relationships, and the depth of their connection.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
|---|---|---|
Family love | The poem brings to life a childhood memory of a boy and his father on their farm, using present tense verbs, like “sweating” and “falling”, alongside imagery, such as the simile (opens in a new tab) comparing his father’s shoulders with “a full sail”, or the mark of his boots in the “furrows” of “polished sod” | Heaney uses vivid and immersive descriptions to present the impact of a father on his young son |
Understanding the text
All the questions in the CIE Literature for English exam encourage an informed, personal response, which means that you should develop a sound understanding of the poem’s themes, main ideas, settings, situations and events. This will help you to explore the writer’s intentions and methods. This section has been divided into two main themes that Seamus Heaney examines in his poem ‘Follower’:
Individual identity
Family Love
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Examiners reward an answer that responds “sensitively and in considerable detail” to the way the writer achieves their effects. You are being asked to explore the poem beyond surface meanings to show deeper awareness of ideas and attitudes. While knowing about a poet’s background will help you understand the themes they examine, your poetry answer should only mention the poet’s biographical information if it supports a point of analysis.
Individual identity
Seamus Heaney was born in rural Ireland in 1939:
In 1995, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature
His poetry often reflects Irish literary and agricultural traditions
Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Follower’ is part of a 1966 anthology “Death of a Naturalist”
Heaney’s life as a farmer’s son is reflected in the poem through its description of a father ploughing a field and “mapping” furrows:
The speaker says, “I wanted to grow up and plough”, which contributes to the poem’s autobiographical and reflective nature
Family love
Seamus Heaney’s poetry often raises themes of family relationships and childhood
The poem ‘Follower’ explores the relationship between a father and son
Traditional values within family relationships, specifically between father and son, are depicted through a memory
The son expresses admiration for their father’s traditionally masculine qualities, such as his physical strength and his pride in exacting agricultural work
But the adult speaker also reflects on childhood insecurities: “All I ever did was follow/In his broad shadow round the farm” and stumble “in his hob-nailed wake”
The poem’s conclusion considers the naturally occurring shift in the balance of power between a father and son
As physical characteristics change over time, roles reverse:
When the father grows old, it is he who is weak and dependant on his son
For further advice and guidance on how to answer the poetry question, please see our detailed guides on Paper 1 Section A: what the question is asking (opens in a new tab) and how to get full marks (opens in a new tab). You will also find an example of a full, annotated model answer (opens in a new tab).
It is important to remember that no marks are given for comments on any of the other poems studied in the anthology. Your response should concentrate only on the poem given.
Sources
https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/Images/414779-2020-specimen-mark-scheme-1.pdf (opens in a new tab).
“From defeat to resilience: The human cockroach in world literature after Kafka.” SAV, https://www.sav.sk/journals/uploads/07041131Arnds_separat.pdf (opens in a new tab). Accessed 21 August 2025.
Songs of Ourselves: Volume 1: Cambridge Assessment International Education Anthology of Poetry in English. Cambridge University Press & Assessment, 2018.
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