The third stanza describes his father and the horses as a “sweating team”. As the “sweating team” reached the end of their land, they turned around to plough the next line. The boy’s father scanned the land with “narrowed” eyes to see the angle and where he’s going to plough next mapping the furrow exactly”. The word “wake” in the third stanza, metaphorically suggests that the boy woke up from his childish “dream” and “stumbled” in to the real world, and realised how challenging and skilful the work of farming really is.
The fourth stanza starts boy was concentrating on his father ploughing and when the “sweating team” turned around the boy was caught by surprise and “stumbled” and failed on the “polish sod”. The boy describes his relationship with his father by telling the audience that his father would sometimes carry him on his back whilst ploughing in the fields, and the boy enjoyed the “dipping and rising” as his father carried him in the uneven field.
The fifth explains his ambitions to the audience and how he is inspired by his father, and wanted to become a farmer like his father as he enjoyed the work, as he describes how his father would set-up the plough before he start ploughing but the boy was young and all he could do was to follow his father around the farm and observe his work as he himself one day planned to become a farmer. This also relates to the boy following in his father’s footsteps and planning to carry on the tradition of farming. This stanza describes the boy’s efforts as he wanted to do things like adults, but was restricted by his ‘immaturity and childhood’.
The boy, at the beginning of this stanza, explains why he followed his father; he was young and needed attention of his father and also he admired his father and his father’s work.
The poem in the sixth stanza turns to the present where the boy has grown to an adult and is independent and powerful, but his father has grown old and weak and “keeps stumbling” and now he depends on his son to take care of him. This is one of the few developed metaphors used by Heaney in the poem, for example, he wanted to be like his father and his father is strong while the child is weak and unable to support himself on the uneven surface; he depended on his father. However later on the poem their positions are switched. Young Heaney has grown now and he is strong while his father is old and needs Heaney’s support.
In this poem Heaney is trying to make his audience aware of the cycle of nature and how situations change and the relationships between people are affected by them. In this poem he uses the boy and the father as examples of the message he is trying to convey to his audience.
The relationship between the boy and his father is described by the poet by showing how the boy was influenced by his father and wanted to follow in his footsteps to become a farmer. Also the boy, describes his father as an expert which suggests the boy thought really highly of his father and as a perfect roll model and idol as the boy himself was not able to do everything him self so he thought of farming as imitation of his father’s actions. Example “ close one eye, stiffen my arm…” But later he realises how challenging and skilled the work really is.
At the end of the poem when the ‘positions’ of the boy and his father are switched, and the father then relies on the son as the son relied on his father before.” my father who keeps stumbling behind me…”
The quote above doesn’t mean that the father is literally behind him, but the poet is troubled by his memory perhaps he feels guilt at not carrying on the tradition of farming, or feels that he can not live up to his father’s example.
The target audience of the poet is the young generation as the poem is trying to tell the audience the bridge between the generations. The poet uses the concept of the bridge to express the boy’s attitude towards his
Father and to explain the relationship between them. The poet in this poem uses a variety of techniques to convey this message to the target audience. For example he uses metaphors to compare their situations throughout the poem. Also the poet tries to explain the boy’s dedication to be like his father by expressing the boy following his father as a “shadow”, his father’s shadow. The boy followed his father around the farm as the father’s shadow follows this father around. This relationship between the father and the boy is shown as a unique relationship as most children today don’t take up the same profession as their father and intend to choose their own path in life.
The first two stanzas are setting the scene for the reader as they describe exactly what the child remembers about watching his father at work. The next two stanzas are describing the event precisely how it happened, basically the first four stanzas are what the child remembers from the child’s memory. The fifth stanza is about the child’s feelings and dreams. The last stanza jumps to the present where the boy and the father’s places are switched and explains how the poet regrets that he failed to carry on the family tradition, maybe because his father is dead but him memory stills haunts the poet as he tries to imagine what his father would have thought of him if he was still alive.
Overall the poet has managed to put forward his message to his audience successfully as after reading the poem the reader thinks about the fact that everyone takes their childhood for granted.
