What are the issues of ageing in the poem follower by Seamus Heaney?

Question:Follower

My father worked with a horse plough,
His shoulders globed like a full sail strung
Between the shafts and the furrow.
The horses strained at his clicking tongue.

An expert. He would set the wing
And fit the bright-pointed sock.
The sod rolled over without breaking.
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.

I stumbled in his hobnailed wake,
Fell sometimes on the polished sod;
Sometimes he rode me on his back
Dipping and rising to his plod.

I wanted to grow up and plough,
To close one eye, stiffen my arm.
All I ever did was follow
In his broad shadow around the farm.

I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,
Yapping always. But today
It is my father who keeps stumbling
Behind me, and will not go away.

What are the isuuses of aging in this poem? Qoutes?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Follower

My father worked with a horse plough,
His shoulders globed like a full sail strung
Between the shafts and the furrow.
The horses strained at his clicking tongue.

An expert. He would set the wing
And fit the bright-pointed sock.
The sod rolled over without breaking.
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.

I stumbled in his hobnailed wake,
Fell sometimes on the polished sod;
Sometimes he rode me on his back
Dipping and rising to his plod.

I wanted to grow up and plough,
To close one eye, stiffen my arm.
All I ever did was follow
In his broad shadow around the farm.

I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,
Yapping always. But today
It is my father who keeps stumbling
Behind me, and will not go away.

What are the isuuses of aging in this poem? Qoutes?

The inevitable decline of those we once wished to emulate. As children we can easily hero-worship, we can only follow and understand what we see - Seamus Heaney's father was obviously a labouring man whose skills lay in his hands, and as a child he wanted to follow in his footsteps.
As an adult, he sees his father differently, mainly because aging has robbed him of the things he admired - his strength and his manual skills, but maybe also because Heaney has taken a totally different path to his father, and cannot link to him in any way.
That's all I get from this.

are you studying this for GCSE? i hated studying seamus heaney, all his poems in the anthology had practically the same meaing, he doesnt like farming, loves writing, reckons he dissapointed his father by not following in his footsteps. although he used to follow him when he was young even then he 'stumbled' trying fill his footsteps. his father's shadow is 'broad' and he has 'globed shoulders' to show his strenth and power. Now his dad has aged and has lost these traits. But i dont think he literally follows his son around in the physical senese, but in the psychological sense. he thinks he dissapointed his dad.