In The Follower when the son became the one doing the ploughing he got annoyed with his father following him around but in Strongman there is still a bond

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Follower & Strongman

Comparison

The poem is about a young boy who looks up to his father and follows him around as he does his job, which is ploughing the field. When he is older he wants to take over for his father and do his job. Some similarities in the poems are that in both of them the son is recalling childhood memories and describing theirs feelings for their fathers. A difference in the poems is that the ‘Follower’ is set in the fields where his father works and the son is learning how to do what his father does so he can do it one day, but in ‘Strongman’ the father is playing with his son and looking after him but we do not know exactly where it is set.

    The mood in the ‘Follower’ is a positive and happy mood as the son is watching his father do what he does best and his son thinks he is great at it and the best. We know this because the writer says he is ‘an expert’. We can also tell it is a happy mood as the son says, ‘I wanted to grow up and plough’. This suggests that the son likes what his father does and is having fun following him around. The mood changes in the last few lines though as the son is now older and doing the job his father used to but his father is now the one following his son around. This makes the son angry with him, we know this because he says, ‘But today it is my father who keeps stumbling behind me and will not go away’. The father and son have switched places and it is now the father who is following his son around.

    The same think has happened in the poem ‘Strongman’. It was once the father looking after his son but now the father is too old and weak to do anything so his son is now looking after him. Although the switch in both poems is alike the mood isn’t. In ‘The Follower’ when the son became the one doing the ploughing he got annoyed with his father following him around but in ‘Strongman’ there is still a bond between the father and son and there is a sad and caring mood.

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    One of the main themes in the ‘Follower’ is that the son looks up to his father and wants to follow in his footsteps by doing his job when he is older. We know this because the son says, ‘An expert’, also he says, ‘the horses strained at his clicking tongue’. This suggests he is an expert, very good at his job and can control the horse just by clicking his tongue. He does not need to use equipment or even words.

   The title ‘Follower’ is important as the poem is about a young boy following and ...

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