Power In Seamus Heaney's Follower

How do the poems present the thematic dichotomy of power and powerlessness? Explore this idea, referring to three poems in detail and to at least three other poems from your wider reading.

Seamus Heaney’s ‘Follower’ explores a power dynamic between different generations in a family, and different types of occupation, in its focus on the poet’s feelings towards his father as both a child and an adult. As a child, the poet is presented as being in awe of his father’s power and expertise, and a wanting to follow in his footsteps. However, as an adult, the pet has chosen to work in the field of poetry, not agriculture, thus rejecting his father’s influence. Nevertheless, the memory of his father still follows him, showing the power of parental influence, and impacting on his life and work.

The opening of the poem challenges society’s perceptions about the power and status of

This is ascertained by the foregrounded words at the start of the second stanza of the poem; "An Expert" which is then followed by caesura in the form of a bullet point. Caesura has been used in order In addition he describes how the father's eye narrowed and angled at the ground along with an aspect of mapping the furrow exactly. The father’s influence is also incorporated in the second stanza when Heaney writes, “At the headrig, with a single pluck of reins, the sweating team turned round and back into the land”. This not only emphasises the control that his father had over the horses also, but, also the amount of power he has to be able to control wild animals with nothing but a simple sound.Another phrase in the second stanza that implies that his father was very skilled is “The sod rolled over without breaking”. This quality would obviously require a great deal of expertise and once more uses this image to further the idea that the field seemed like a vast ocean to the small