Is Heaney's 'behind' a preposition or adverb

[castleontheground]

Hello
Eldest is studying 'Follower' by Seamus Heaney. The last lines are:

'I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,
Yapping always. But today
It is my father who keeps stumbling
Behind me, and will not go away.'

Please can anyone tell be if the word 'behind' an adverb or a preposition?

[Floggingmolly]

Preposition, I'd say

[castleontheground]

Thanks for replying so quickly. 1-0 to dd then! This new English GCSE is taking memorising quotes to a new level. I would have been hopeless without bringing texts in. She's memorising 36 quotes just for the poetry section.

[Floggingmolly]

Sympathies. Dd is in the thick of it too

[Floggingmolly]

Btw, I could be totally wrong...

[catsarenice]

I would say preposition too

[vvviola]

Preposition (as it refers to place) rather than adverb (which modifies a verb).

For curiousity sake - does she need to discuss the grammar in the exam? seems like a sad use for such a beautiful poet if that's the only point

[castleontheground]

Dd wants to throw some language discussion in there. I read an essay she did on Macbeth (she got an 8) and it was from the exam board. I had no idea about the terminology she was using but she got lots of ticks for it!

[castleontheground]

Apologies for my lack of grammar btw in my posts - multi managing a dog, a noisy younger sibling with a stressed revising 15 year old. Roll on the end of June!

[castleontheground]

Vvviola thank you for explaining. The poems are dissected til there's nothing left. I am not sure the poets agonised over each word as much as my dd has!

[Eolian]

Preposition. If the sentence were "He was falling behind", it would be an adverb (describing how/where he was doing the falling). But in "behind me", it's a preposition because it's denoting the relationship/position relative to 'me'.

[Nicotina]

Preposition

[Floggingmolly]

Well done to your dd on her 8! ⭐️

[catsarenice]

Off topic but what's an 8? Do they not do A*, A etc any more?

[castleontheground]

Catsarenice - this year the Englishs and Maths are graded 1-9. Nine is an A**. Pass is a 4 or 5 but people are arguing over that one. The exams are much harder. In the next two years all subjects will be graded 1-9.

[catsarenice]

Wow 8 is brilliant then - well done DD !! I feel old now - must be what it felt like for those older than me when o'levels and CSEs changed to GCSE...

[AuntieStella]

And of course, for O Level, you had to learn quotations, as there were never texts permitted.

[castleontheground]

Dd is learning 3 quotes for each of the 15 poems in the Love and Relationships poem section (I thought there were 12 poems). Then quotes for characters and themes in DNA, Jekyll and Hyde and, just a little one to round off, Macbeth. Then she has her other 9 GCSEs.....I wish the school realised 10 GCSEs is over doing it now they are getting harder.

[Lisa282820]

One word blended quotations are enough and adequate for the closed book exams.
36 full quotations seems a lot! I would ensure that your daughter has a balance of the language together with structure and context of the poems too as all of these elements need to be commented on for a pass grade.
Good Luck to your daughter; clearly she is working really hard! X

[Lisa282820]

Vvviola,
The poems are dissected and this is the reason I no longer enjoy poetry. When I look at the little of Heaney's poem presented at the top I see a quatrain with an ABAB rhyme scheme that starts with a possessive prounoun 'I' presented in the past tense being 'was' quickly followed by verbs that evoke imagery 😂
I won't go on...

I wish I could just read a poem and consider it to be beautiful.

[Lisa282820]

Personal pronoun not possessive sorry 😂
No grade 8 for me 😂

[Dreardre]

Auntie, me too. Log books and not calculators. Given the tough stuff my dd does in primary- not convinced our way was better. And I'm a dinosaur.