Digging

5 Pages 1143 Words

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. Turf c...