In the middle of the poem Heaney shows himself out to be quite hopeless, and his dad to be amasing. He uses very contrasting words to show the big difference between them.
‘I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake, fell sometimes on the polished sod’
This shows Heaney to be behind his dad, trying very hard to keep up but can’t, but then Heaney goes on to say that ‘sometimes he rode me on his back’. This, still showing Heaney’s dad to be the more stronger of the two, shows him out to be very caring of his son, helping his son by carrying him on his back like a mother lion who carry’s her young in her mouth.
The story soon changes at the very end of the poem. Heaney has obviously grown to be a man and his opinion has changed about their relationship. As though he has flipped round the roles.
‘But today it is my farther who keeps stumbling behind me, and will not go away’
Heaney is now talking in the present. He shows that his dad has grown old and grown out of his superman suit. He cannot fufil his duties and is now stumbling behind him. I think his shows a sort of role change in their relationship Heaney has not grown up to have his fathers caring side, Heaney will not even lend his farther a hand, let alone ride him on his own back. He sees his dad as a nuisance, exactly how he thought his dad saw him, but he just wants his dad to go away.
Now in the second poem ‘Boy drives his farther to confession’ Heaney begins to express that his farther is not what he has always seen him to be. He’s seeing him in a new light, as he grows older.
‘Less than a farther… quite vulnerable’
This is going back to a part in follower where his farther is ‘stumbling’ behind him, vunerable. This is how he sees his and his father’s relationship in the present, he’s so weak and slow how could he have ever been the superman he once was? This is how I think he feels when he says he sees him less than a farther, as he really isn’t meeting the requirements that he thinks a farther figure should meet.
Heaney describes how he sometimes found flaws in his dad and finds sort of gaps in how he fathers Heaney.
‘…found chinks in the paternal mail’
A chink is a narrow opening, so he is saying he’s found maybe damages in his farther. Like a toy, where damages affect how it works. Still, going back to the requirements Heaney has for his farther, this is what he is explaining here as well, as he does in ‘follower’. Heaney obviously finds many things wrong in his father, sometimes his relationship with him isn’t as ‘father-son’ as he would like it.
Following on from this Heaney gives examples of these ‘’damages’’.
‘I was shocked at your tears…’
Heaney shows how he was not used to hid dad not being superman anymore like in ‘follower’ where he sees him so strong and great at everything, now he’s crying and Heaney is not used to this switch in relationship, where now he may have to be the farther and be strong.
Heaney soon starts to realise how much him and his farther are alike, for so long he’s seen him as a whole another being, but maybe it’s this way.
‘Do you tell sins as I would? Does the same hectic rage in our blood?’
He’s starting to see his dad is a human being. He’s seeing their relationship less than a big contrast, but a mixed effort. He’s stopped trying to show their differences as he did in ‘follower’ and he sees that he is a lot like his dad. They have the same blood. He uses the word ‘our’ to show this, and it shows a strong bond in their relationship. Their, now better, relationship.