Seamus Heaney

My father worked with a horse-plough

Heaney · Follower · parents and children · growing up

The first line. The boy watches his father plough. He wants to be him.

I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake

Heaney · Follower · parents and children · growing up

The boy trips along behind his father's big boots.

But today It is my father who keeps stumbling Behind me, and will not go away

Heaney · Follower · parents and children · growing up · loss

Now the father is old and the son cannot shake him off. The roles have swapped.