... both in reality and symbolically: "Digging" symbolizes Heaney's departure from continuity by his choosing to be a poet rather than a farmer like his father, while also maintaining continuity through an extended metaphor in which Heaney suggests writing is his form of "digging." Heaney was born into a lower-class potato farming family in rural Northern Ireland in 1939. He began studying at Queen ... physically separated from his family's labor, he is ultimately returned to it through his literary skill. He then uses the action of "dig" as a symbol of continuity. Concerning the extended m...

• Word Count: 994
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... her child and most likely did not wish to drown it, but due to the pressures of religion, she felt the deed was necessary. There is another fish to infant metaphor and religious allusion as the infant is portrayed as "a minnow with hooks". In line twelve, the last line of the third stanza, Heaney says the infant was " ... ...

• Word Count: 1097
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... until about forty years ago there was a "draconian law, called the special powers act (SPA), gave the authorities exceptional powers to arrest, detain, without trial, and suppress political dissent " (Moloney 39). Only recently has discriminating laws against Catholics been taken away. Northern Ireland as it is right now, consists of a majority of Protestants and a minority of Catholics, about a ten percent margin ... ...

• Word Count: 1008
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography

... acid bombs. Security measures of the utmost intensity have been put to the upper limits as multiple shots have been shot at police lines throughout the last two days, wounding 39 officers. Unfortunately, the commotion did not end as quickly as the police had expected. Fresh violence flared in the streets of Belfast the following day as pipe bombs, blast bombs ... ...

• Word Count: 695
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Graduate