Seamus Heaney "DIGGING"

DIGGING - Seamus Heaney

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests; snug as a gun

Under my window a clean rasping sound

When the spade sinks into gravelly ground

My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flower beds

Bends low, comes up twenty years away

Stooping in rhythm through potato drills

Where he was digging. 

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft

Against the inside knee was levered firmly 

He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep

To scatter new potatoes that we picked

Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade, 

Just like his own man.

My father cut more turf in one day

Than any other man on Toner's bog

Once I carried him milk in a bottle

Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up

To drink it, then fell right away

Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods

Over his, shoulder, going down and down

For the good turf. Digging

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap

Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge 

Through living roots awaken in my head.

But I've no spade to follow men like that. 

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests

I'll dig with it.

Quite often, a young man will look up to his father as a 'father figure', someone to idolize and emulate. I've frequently noticed in Seamus Heaney's poetry his tendency to mention a father (both in "Follower" and "Mid-Term Break"). In his poem, "Digging" Heaney, through the diction and metaphors presented, compares himself and his values to those of his forebears. Throughout the poem, Heaney contemplates his 'roots' in remembering his father and grandfather and the things they valued. Heaney himself wonders if his own occupation is as valuable as theirs. 

In the beginning of the poem Heaney presents himself writing, he suggests that his pen is his tool; he then becomes conscious of his father working below in the garden. When describing the work of his father Heaney uses diction which suggests admiration towards his father's labors and, although he doesn't outright state it, implies his questioning as to whether or not his own work is as genuine. 

Heaney obviously values the quality of his father's work. Words like "clean rasping sound" suggests his admiration. "Straining" and the repetition of "digging" create a sense of purposefulness and "stooping in rhythm" the efficiency with which his father works. "The coarse boot nestled...firmly". These words suggest the determination and amount of effort of his father's contribution to work. Also, "He rooted out tall tops" implies the thoroughness with which his father completes his actions. Heaney begins to reminisce about the "potatoes that [they] picked, Loving their cool hardness in [their] hands"; He senses the same admiration and witnesses the same determination that he did helping his father pick potatoes as a child. 

"By God, the old man could handle a spade, Just like his old man". His oath "By God" suggests the tradition with which the family has passed down the spade work and the hardworking customs. The phrase, "Just like his old man" shows the way this manner of work has been passed down proudly through the generations. Heaney then recalls his fathers heroic reputation as man who could "cut more turf in a day than any other man on Toner's bog". Heaney then goes on to evoke the expertise of his forebear's potato-planting: "Nicking and slicing...heaving...Digging". Also, he evokes the productiveness, "Once I carried him milk in a bottle..." Heaney observes the quickness of the break as "He straightened up to drink it, then fell to right away..."

"Living roots awaken in my head". This is a metaphor that plays on the pun of "roots". Here roots can represent both the roots of the potatoes as well as his family roots of his father and grandfather and their relish in working in the soil. Heaney is cognizant of the influence of family traditions of honest and hard work and wishes to live up to the high standards which they have set for future generations, including Heaney himself. "But I've no spade to follow men like them". Heaney feels that his line of work is incompetent in comparison to that of his father and grandfather, he worries that, as a writer, Heaney is no longer following the traditional line of work in the family. He wonders whether poetry requires as much hard work and effort, whether or not it is as valued or 'manly' as potato-planting.

The final stanza of the poem demonstrates Heaney's assertiveness that his writing is, in fact, as valid. "Between my finger and my thumb, the squat pen rests, I'll dig with it". Another metaphor is thus presented in Heaney's usage of the word "dig". Heaney is now comparing his writing to that of the potato-planting in that they both require honest hard toil and "digging". 

Overall Heaney's poem in itself is evidence of the validity of hardwork and expertise which goes into his writing. The amount of dedication and his acknowledgment of doing something that one loves, it is both positive and inspiring, like the work of his forefathers.