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Digging

            The poem "Digging" (533) by Seamus Heaney is about a person looking out of a window at their Father digging. The poet is describing what he/she sees while their Father is working hard. Then the poem goes on to describe the feelings and emotions that the individual is feeling while the digging is occurring. .
             The first and most obvious clue that allows me to realize who the author is in line one, "Between my finger and my thumb." (1). The poet writes in the first person throughout the poem creating the belief that he is speaking about himself. He writes about his Father and his Grandfather and he seems to move from describing his Father to describing his Grandfather. He does this so smoothly that the reader hardly notices that the transition from Father to Grandfather took place. The second clue to revealing the author is slightly more hidden. The poet mentions turf. Now Ireland is one of the only countries left in Europe that still have turf bogs. Since Seamus Heaney is Irish there is an obvious link to his country. When the poet writes about his Grandfather he implies that there used to be a lot of turf cutters in his day. "My Grandfather cut more turf in a day than any other man on Toners bog," (17-18). The lines show the amount of pride that the boy has towards his Grandfather. The line also implies that there used to be a lot of turf-cutters in his day. .
             Heaney writes, "But I've no spade to follow men like them." (28). This could be written for a number of reasons, one could be that he just doesn't want to be a turf digger like his family. He might not find it mentally stimulating enough, but fears that his family will be upset about him doing something new and different. But he shows a lot of pride in what his Father and Grandfather do and did for a living. The person may also be upset because turf cutters are no longer needed. In other words the world is changing and "men like them" are no longer needed.


Essays Related to Digging

1. A comparision of Digging and Follewer

... ve no spade to follow men like them/ Between my finger and my thumb/The squat pen rests./ I"ll dig with it. Although Heaney understands digging and values it, he can't follow in his father's footsteps and take up the spade. His trade is writing and he will utilize it as his ... spade, seems to suggest a more sophisticated approach to furthering Ireland's cultural identity and also, their ability to deal with "the troubles" The audience recognises "digging" as part of Irish culture, and supports Heaney for continuing the traditions of the past, even modifying them to suit the times. After ...

  • Word Count: 764
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Seamus Heaney Digging

... switches to past tense in the last two lines. He is writing about what he sees just outside his window. Seamus is witnessing his "father, digging" through flowerbeds. "His straining rump among the flowerbeds," obviously Seamus's father is experiencing some hardships trying to turn the soil on the flowerbed. ... quote is used in the context so that Heaney seems to be disappointed he also cannot wield a spade. Heaney's second memory is one of his grandfather digging turf on Toner's bog. He clearly expresses that his grandfather is a very successful digger, and can dig "more than any other ...

  • Word Count: 1111
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Changing Generations in Digging

... career within the context of these roots. The narrator endeavors to find out more about his past and also unravel his own identity by "digging," which is a central extended metaphor within the poem. The narrator also searches through his family roots, heritage and family rituals. Several literary ... of family, identity, ability, man and nature, and love. Within the poem, we see three generations of men taking up a form of "digging." The three men within this family value hard work, although the narrator has chosen a different type of work. He knows that he is breaking ... goods that...

  • Word Count: 1042
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Comparison essay between Digging and Death of a Naturalist

... both looking back at childhood memories, "Death of a Naturalist", the words "daddy...mammy",which refers to a child, usually children talk like this. In "Digging"the words,"my grandfather", refers that it was a childhood memory because, his grandfather would have died, when the poet is an adult.Both of the poems have ... "Death of a Naturalist" to refer to the theme were "then one hot day" and "That if I dipped my hand,the spawn would clutch it". "Digging" didn't have any similes maybe because, the poet wanted to be serious about whentalking about his parents and how he looks up to them....

  • Word Count: 630
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Continuity In Seamus Heaney's "Digging"

... 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's University in 1957, and ... elsewhere, forbidding him from participating in his family's trade. The privilege of higher education serves as a disjunction between the speaker and the symbolic act of digging. The speaker is obviously concerned with being alienated from his family, and feels a need to conne...

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

6. Parents in Digging and Those Winter Sunday

... made, and how it effected his physical being as well as his mental well-being. When Seamus Heaney also writes about his father, in the poem "Digging," he speaks about his fathers work. He tells the story of how his father worked each day just like his grandfather did, "To scatter the ... help his father on the farm. He talks about his father always hard at work, " over his shoulder, going down and down. For the good turf. Digging." Using a metaphorical spade, to show the same determination in his writing as his father had on the farm.  "Between my finger and thumb the squat pen ... di...

  • Word Count: 816
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Digging by Seamus Heaney

... it mean feeling so mentally drained that your brain refuses to fully function? "Hard work" is a broad term, and everybody has his or her own definition. In "Digging" by Seamus Heaney, Heaney compares his work as a writer to the work of his father and grandfather, both farmers who work the land. To Heaney, hard work is the ... kind of work his father and grandfather demonstrate in the fields; work that is physical and involves hard manual labor like "digging" up potatoes and turf. In relationship to Heaney and his family, my form of work as a student also greatly differs from that of my ...

  • Word Count: 715
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Digging

In Digging we have three characters: the author (the son), his father, and grandfather. The author is clearly making a comparison of his way of life and his fathers" way of life. He ... of his fathers" tools, the spade. With the last sentence the author restates that he wants to be a writer with the statement "I"ll dig with it". My personal interpretation of Digging is that it is a poem of a man who is recollecting of the times we spent with his father and grandfather working and the type of work that they perform. He ... ...

  • Word Count: 830
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Digging Your Own Grave

Crawford/Bartone - 2nd Digging Your Own Grave We all strive to be somebody big in this world. Some one successful, someone powerful, someone well liked. But at what point must we be honest with ... ...

  • Word Count: 2242
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

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