Digging, by Seamus Heaney
Digging -Seamus Heaney
Mª del Mar Garre García
‘Digging’ is a poem written by the Irish author Seamus Heaney in 1966. It belongs to his famous book ‘Death of a naturalist’. The work consists of thirty-four short poems and is largely concerned with life experiences and the formulation of adult identities, family relationships, and rural life.
In this poem Heaney goes inside his most grateful regards of his childhood and adolescence, when his father worked in the countryside as his grandfather did years before. The author expresses his nostalgia and all those feelings that these good regards brought him. This poem is such a journey through the history and traditions of the old Irish lands, hard and cold lands cultivated with effort and pride.
The poem goes progressively inside the author’s regards, such as in a spiral of experiences. We can divide this text in three parts. First, he is sat in his desk, writing as usual, when he starts looking at his pen and remembers his childhood. The pen is his work tool, as the spade was for his ancestors. Then, in the next stanzas, he travels around his past and describes how his father farmed the lands: he grabbed his tools and walked slowly between the potato drills, enjoying his work and experiencing the sensations that the contact with the nature made him feel. After that, the author remembers his grandfather and expounds how he cut the turf and how he managed to make up his life working in the bogs. In this part, Heaney includes an emotive anecdote: one day, he carried his grandfather a bottle of milk which he drunk before start digging. Finally, the poem concludes with the author’s thoughts about these experiences. He thinks that he can’t be as his father and his grandfather were and do what they did, but he is ready to tribute them by doing what he best does: writing.
This poem is a very emotionally worded one. It is composed by a complete set of technical resources and language procedures. First of all, an
Mª del Mar Garre García
‘Digging’ is a poem written by the Irish author Seamus Heaney in 1966. It belongs to his famous book ‘Death of a naturalist’. The work consists of thirty-four short poems and is largely concerned with life experiences and the formulation of adult identities, family relationships, and rural life.
In this poem Heaney goes inside his most grateful regards of his childhood and adolescence, when his father worked in the countryside as his grandfather did years before. The author expresses his nostalgia and all those feelings that these good regards brought him. This poem is such a journey through the history and traditions of the old Irish lands, hard and cold lands cultivated with effort and pride.
The poem goes progressively inside the author’s regards, such as in a spiral of experiences. We can divide this text in three parts. First, he is sat in his desk, writing as usual, when he starts looking at his pen and remembers his childhood. The pen is his work tool, as the spade was for his ancestors. Then, in the next stanzas, he travels around his past and describes how his father farmed the lands: he grabbed his tools and walked slowly between the potato drills, enjoying his work and experiencing the sensations that the contact with the nature made him feel. After that, the author remembers his grandfather and expounds how he cut the turf and how he managed to make up his life working in the bogs. In this part, Heaney includes an emotive anecdote: one day, he carried his grandfather a bottle of milk which he drunk before start digging. Finally, the poem concludes with the author’s thoughts about these experiences. He thinks that he can’t be as his father and his grandfather were and do what they did, but he is ready to tribute them by doing what he best does: writing.
This poem is a very emotionally worded one. It is composed by a complete set of technical resources and language procedures. First of all, an