Follower

'His shoulders globed like a full sail strung' - What does this simile suggest about the speaker's father?

• He is a sailor with big arms

• His shoulders are small

• He admires his father, he is strong and means the world to him

• He likes playing with string

'My father worked a horse plough' - what sort of skills do you need to do this work well?

• Strength, precision and control

• Creativity and warmth

• Writing well

• Being able to speak to horses

'The horse strained at his clicking tongue' - when the father makes this noise, what does it show us about him and his work?

• He is trying to sound like a helicopter

• He also has a dog

• He is masterful, and the horses work hard for him

• He isn't very nice to the horses

'An expert'. Which technique is Heaney beginning the second stanza with?

• Metaphor

• Short sentence

• Alliteration

• Simile

'The sod rolled over without breaking' - what does this line from stanza two indicate about the father's work?

• He has careful control over nature - he can make it 'roll over' without damaging it

• He has a dog called Sod

• He isn't a very good ploughman

• He likes to plant flowers in the ground

'With a single pluck/

Of reins'

The line break between stanza 2 and 3 makes us focus on the word 'reins'. What is the technique and the effect?

• Enjambment - it makes us see how controlling the father is, but also how broken their relationship is now

• Alliteration - it makes it sound harsh

• Simile - he is like a horse

• Adjective - he is like a king

'I stumbled in his hobnailed wake' - when the speaker introduces himself in stanza 4, how does he present himself?

• The verb 'stumbled' makes him seem clumsy and inferior

• He has long nails

• He is awake

• He likes his father

'I stumbled in his hobnailed wake' - In stanza 4, which word brings back the extended metaphor of his father being like a ship?

• 'Wake'

• 'Hobnailed'

• 'His'

• 'Stumbled'

'I wanted to grow up and plough' - which word here could indicate that the speaker has changed his mind about following in his father's footsteps?

• 'Wanted' - the past tense suggests it was a dream that has stayed in the past

• 'Wanted' - he has become a ploughman himself

• 'Grow' - the speaker has not grown up yet

• 'Plough' - he is on the farm as he speaks

'Plough/arm/follow/farm' - look at the rhyme scheme that Heaney uses at the end of each line. Do all the words rhyme? Is it regular? Why?

• Yes, they all rhyme, it represents how much he loves his dad

• It is an ABCB rhyme scheme - it shows there is something not quite right about their relationship

• None of the words rhyme

• Each of the rhymes are half-rhymes