Seamus Heaney & Tony Curtis Essay -- English Literature

Seamus Heaney & Tony Curtis On initial reading both the Follower and Strongman are simply about a son's relationship with their father. Whilst this relationship is a central theme of both poems, the poems also explore a range of issues including cultural identity, guilt and social class. This essay will attempt to analyse both poems individually and to also identify areas of conflict and similarity between the poems. The first two words of Follower by Seamus Heaney are "My father" which immediately establishes the poet's emotionally involved relationship with the subject of the poem. In contrast the poet of Strongman writes in the third person for the majority of the poem and it is only really in the last two lines that the poet establishes that he is addressing the poem to the son. Both poems create a vivid picture of physically strong fathers who draw on their physical strength by undertaking skilled manual jobs to support their families "My father worked with a horse-plough" and "A carpenter who could punch nails into wood with a clench fist". Seamus Heaney employs the use of a number of sea images in helping the reader to visualise the immense strength and stamina of his father's body "His shoulders globed like a full sail strung" and "Sometimes he rode me . Dipping and rising to his plod". Similarly Tony Curtis employs powerful visual imagery to illustrate the father in his poem as the pivot of a roundabout with his five sons as seats/chairs swinging from his arms as he "would stretch his arms and hang his five sons from them, turning like a roundabout". This is a very successful simile as it encapsulates the swinging motion of the father playing with his children and on a deeper note the fathe... ...man focuses on the reversed roles of the father and son. The original role of the father as the provider and central axis in the family has now disappeared to the extent that it is now the son who not only cares for the father physically but also emotionally as he reassures the father with "No trouble - he said, no trouble, Dad". The final likes of the poem encapsulate the indignities of sickness and old age. The use of minimalist, stark language, without the use of unnecessary adjectives heightens the poignancy of the last lines. In conclusion both Follower and Strongman are brief but effective poems that successfully portray father - son relationships. The readers are allowed an intimate snapshot/glimpse into these relationships. Both poems describe the permanent bonds between fathers and sons whilst also effectively addressing how these bonds evolve.