Comparing Follower And Praise Song For My Mother

The poems Follower by Seamus Heaney and Praise Song for my Mother by Grace Nichols deal with the memories of the persona’s parents and living without them after spending all their childhood with them. ‘Follower’ explores the persona’s memories with his father and his reflections on how his father and their relationship changed over the years. ‘Praise song for my mother’ explores the positive attributes of the mother and how she influenced the daughter throughout her years of growing up. This essay will explore how both poems deal with the poet’s memories of growing up with their parents, how they shared different relationships, and how significant moments and memories with their parents had an impact on their lives.

In the poem, ‘the follower’ the persona (the son) was in awe of his father throughout his childhood. The persona gives the impression that he and his father had a perfect relationship, but because the poem is written solely from the perspective of the son,

As a child, the son lived following his father’s “broad shadow” but now that he is old, he is the one who is weak and shadowing the son. On the farm, he “was a nuisance, tripping, falling, yapping always” trying to follow in his father’s footsteps, but “today it is my father who keeps stumbling behind me”. The poet conveys the irony in the situation as it is like a role reversal; as the father gets older he mimics childlike movements now that he is weaker. The son is now stronger than his father, when once his father was stronger than him. The son says that his father stumbling behind him “will not go away”. This makes the persona seems irritated as he seems to find his father annoying, and reveals that he finds it difficult to look after his father as he gets older. Perhaps because he doesn’t have time for his father but all in all, he will always cherish their