Heaney, Seamus. "Digging".
- the speaker sits indoors with a pen in his hand, listens to the sounds of a spade outdoors, and develops a series of thoughts the digging evokes in his mind
-his father digs among the flowerbeds where he once used to dig for potatoes and where once his own father used to dig
- the speaker praises how both his father and his grandfather could handle the spade
- conclusion: the speaker announces that he will not follow his ancestors in literal digging x but: in figurative digging in history with his pen
- free verse, irregular rhyme and stanza varying according to the speaker's thoughts
- interweaves the literal and the figurative concept of digging, describes one in terms of the other
- draws both a dividing line and a parallel between the occupation of his predecessors and his own
AuthorHeaney, Seamus. (b. 1939).
First PublishedIn: Death of a Naturalist. London: Faber and Faber, 1966.
Heaney, Seamus. "Digging". Opened Ground: Poems 1966 - 1996. London: Faber and Faber, 1998.