Gillian Clarke

http://www.gillianclarke.co.uk/home.htm
Gillian was born in Cardiff, Wales. She was a poet, playwrighter, editor and a translator. She was also a freelance tutor of creative writing, from primary school children to adults. Her poetry is massively studied by GCSE and A Level students throughout Britain. She has travelled in Europe and the United States giving poetry readings and lectures, and her work has been translated into ten languages. She has a daughter and two sons, and now lives with her husband on a smallholding in Ceredigion, where they raise a small flock of sheep, and care for the land according to organic and conservation practice.

Seamus Heaney - Follower

Most of this poem describes the skill and strength of Heaneys' father. How do each of the following lines express his fathers qualities?
a) 'His shoulders globed like a full sail strung'This shows us his father is strong and highly proffessioned at plowing. His father is a very hard worker and puts all strength and effort into his work.

b) 'The horses straining at his clicking tongue'Even though the horses are tired, his father is still going strong and persists on finishing his work each day. His father is a very persistant man and insists on completing each level of work at all times.

c) 'With a single pluck/Of reins, the sweating team turned around'
The shows that Seamus' father is in control. The horses follow his commands instantly; even though they are worn out.

d) 'Dipping and rising to his plod'
This continues on the nautical reference like the use of the snail in the first quote. Maybe comparing the plowing to a wave and his father to a ship as he is strong and over powering towards his work.

What do the following lines tell you about Seamus Heaney?
e) 'I stumble in his hob-nailed wake'
This shows us that the young Heaney followed in his fathers footsteps and stumbled showing his youthful excitement and clumsiness; this may mean that Heaney is impressed at his fathers work.

f) 'I was a nuicance, tripping, falling; yapping always'
This shows that when Seamus was young he was very much interested in his fathers work by asking questions constantly and interupting his fathers work. This shows that Seamus could have been seen as annoying in his fathers point of view; a nuicance.

What kind of animal does the young Heaney remind you of?
Heaney reminds me of a young, mischievous puppy. I think this as they are very loyal to there owners and can be a nuicance at times; just like Heaney as a child. Puppies are very excited animals and always getting in the way at the most complicated times. Heaney resembles this as he was constantly getting under his fathers feet while he was trying to make a living.

How has the relationship changed according to the last two and a half lines?
According to the last few lines his father now follows Heaney instead; he is now the nuicance - the situation has been reversed. Maybe this is because his father has become older by the end of the poem and now relys on his son to take care of him; just like Seamus relied on his father throughout the previous years.