Seamus

Heaney

Seamus Heaney •born in Northern Ireland in 1939•eldest of nine children•father - farmer and cattle dealer•poetry centred on the countryside and farm life •younger brother killed, described in poem Mid-Term Break•used knowledge of Latin, Anglo-Saxon and Gaelic to explore words and their significance•Taught at Harvard and Oxford University •awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995

Digging

Between my finger and my thumbThe squat pen rests: snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping soundWhen the spade sinks into gravelly ground:My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbedsBends low, comes up twenty years awayStooping in rhythm through potato drillsWhere he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaftAgainst the inside knee was levered firmly.He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deepTo scatter new potatoes that we pickedLoving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God the old man could handle a spade.Just like his old man.

My grandfather cut more turf in a dayThan any other man on Toner's bog.Once I carried him milk in a bottleCorked sloppily with paper. He straightened upTo drink it, then fell to right away

Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sodsOver his shoulder, going down and downFor the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slapOf soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edgeThrough living roots awaken in my head.But I've no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumbThe squat pen rests.I'll dig with it.

About the poem

•sees his father, an old man, digging the flowerbeds

•Recalls his younger, stronger father digging in potato fields and his grandfather, before that, was an expert turf digger

•knows he has no spade to follow men like them

•a writer, not a farmer, so digs with his pen, to 'dig' into his past.

StructureStructure

• nine stanzas that vary between two lines and five lines in length

• no pattern to the stanzas, perhaps to reflect the idea that there is no pattern or predictability to our memories

LanguageLanguage

The title is to the point.

All three generation are involved in digging:

• his grandfather dug turf,

• his father dug up potatoes,

• persona is digging up his memories and his past

• begins in present tense as persona describes seeing his elderly father straining among flowerbeds

• past tense when he recalls his father and grandfather at work

• last two stanzas return to the present, when persona realises that his work is to write.

• final line is in the future tense to emphasise persona’s determination and resolution for the future - 'I'll dig'.

His role in the digging:

• he and other children gathered new potatoes that his father dug up

• responsible for taking milk to his grandfather on Toner's bog

• watched his father and grandfather at work so able to describe their movements so precisely

• father was very skilled at his work. Persona remembers him 'Stooping in rhythm through potato drills' (line 8) and his boot and his knee fitted the spade perfectly (lines 10/11)

• uses technical terms (lug, shaft) to stress that the spade is a precise tool

• 'By God, the old man could handle a spade' (line 15) is a simple, loving exclamation of pride.

• also proud of his grandfather• Hardworking - barely stopped when given some

milk• precise in skills - 'nicking and slicing neatly' • strong - 'heaving sods over his shoulder' (line

21). • repetition of ‘old man’ (line 16) suggests not

only persona’s affection for his grandfather, but his father's affection for him too: the love between them bonds the three generations.

Does not say why he has 'no spade to follow men like them' (line 28)

• Perhaps feels he is not physically strong enough for this type of work.

• Or not emotionally equipped for it, having broken the family tradition of working the land

• Might suggest that he fears his grandfather and father disapprove of his having left the land

ImageryImagery• opening simile is striking• pen is 'snug as a gun' (line 2) - shows how

perfectly the pen fits his hand - and hints how well suited persona is to write. (cf: In the fourth stanza, persona describes how perfectly his father's body is in tune with the spade, showing how well suited he is to dig.)

• gun image also suggests the strength of the pen: it is a weapon for writing.

The enjambment between the second and third stanza is dramatic.

• persona looks down from his window to see his father digging - he is actually looking back twenty years

• pause between the stanzas indicates the gap in time

Penultimate stanza appeals to our senses.

Persona refers to: • cold smell of 'potato mould' (line 25)• sound of 'squelch and slap / Of

soggy peat' (lines 25/26)• sight of the 'curt cuts' (line 26).

Description made more vivid.

• alliteration heightens the experience – hard plosive sounds /k/ mimics sound of spade slashing. Effort behind the work.

• Repetition of sibilant /s/ - onomatopoeic effect of wet ground as one walks.

Creates the setting in the mind’s eye

The final stanza almost brings the poem round full circle.

•Repetition - the opening lines: 'Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests.'

•Yet the gun image is replaced by 'I'll dig with it.'

Persona’s reflection and acceptance of situation.

• pen becomes a metaphorical spade

• suggests that his pen is his tool, just as the spades were tools for his father and grandfather

• also suggests that persona wants to 'go back to his roots' - to dig into his past through his writing

SoundSoundrepetition • how many times are the words dig and

'digging' used? What effect does this have? • Alliteration - used re-create the feel and

sensation of digging: 'the spade sinks into the gravelly ground' (line 4) - /s/ sounds suggest the slicing of the blade through the earth, and the /g/ sounds the gravelly resistance of the soil.

• At the start, use of fairly conventional rhymes: thumb/gun, sound/ground/down;

• thereafter the poem is unrhymedrepeated sounds such as the echoing ing sounds

in 'nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods' (line 22)

Farm work – regular activityWriting - ?

Attitude, Tone and IdeasAttitude, Tone and Ideas

• Much of the meaning of a poem is conveyed by the attitude it expresses toward its subject matter. 'Attitude' can be thought of as a combination of the poet's tone of voice, and the ideas he or she is trying to get across to the reader.

ToneToneHow should this poem be read?• regretful tone? persona is not outside

digging too, and feels he somehow ought to be?

• proud tone? persona is displaying the skills of his father and grandfather for everyone to appreciate?

• loving tone? poem is a gift/tribute to his father and grandfather?

• description of his father and grandfather - very loving

• values his sense of connection with them• very proud of the work they did, even though

has 'no spade to follow' them• Far from regretting his break with the family's

traditional work on the land, persona asserts that he is continuing their work, by digging with his pen.

IdeasIdeas

Our relationship to our forebears, and to work.

• Persona describes his relationship to his father and grandfather purely in terms of their work on the land.

• uses the idea of digging, the commonest form of work in any rural community, as a symbol for productive, creative work in general - and for writing in particular

• By using this metaphor of digging, Heaney also suggests that he himself needs to dig into the past, and dig into the language, to say what he wants to say.

“Loving their cool hardness in our hands.”

Commentary

• sense of persona’s attachment to / love of the earth throughout the poem

• father and grandfather seem to be in harmony with the earth

• as a child, he loved picking up the potatoes that the earth produced

“By God, the old man could handle a spade.”

• persona’s father is now an old man, but term also shows his fondness for him: old man is a common term of affection.

persona is clearly proud of him

“My grandfather cut more turf in a day / than any other man on Toner's bog.”

• boasts about his grandfather's skill - he presents him as a champion digger.

Perhaps the persona boasted as a child to his friends about his grandfather's ability.

“.. living roots awaken in my head.”

• These roots are both actual roots the grandfather's spade cuts through,

• Persona’s metaphorical roots in the land and in his family. Even though he doesn't dig with a spade like his father and grandfather, these roots, living links, are still alive in his mind.