Seamus Heaney – ‘at a Potato Digging’
Seamus Heaney – ‘At a Potato Digging’
• Context • • The poem deals with two different potato harvests. One is the harvest from the present day that goes successfully and which delivers a rich crop. The second potato harvest looks back to the famine of 1845 when the crop failed and many people starved. Whilst the famine is no longer a threat, its ongoing fear remains and this can be seen in the use of religious language throughout the poem. For example, the bowed heads of the potato pickers suggest the desire to respect the gods and show them respect. The poem begins with Heaney describing workers in a potato field in Ireland. They follow a machine that turns up the crop and they put these into a basket and then store them. The second section of the poem involves the healthy potatoes being described. The third section writes about the famine of the past. Fungus destroyed the entire crop of potatoes and this happened for three consecutive years. Ireland was devastated and there were many deaths with people being forced to flee Ireland. In the final section of the poem, Heaney returns to the first section of the poem – Ireland in the 1960s at lunchtime. The workers sit happily, with food to eat. The rhythm of the poem changes in the third section of the poem. This is well suited to the changing subject matter of this part of the poem. Connections are established between each of the sections – the potatoes that are compared to skulls in section two, link to the literal skeletons of section three. The use of religious imagery in the poem is a means of helping the reader to understand the importance of the potato harvest to the people of Ireland.
• Summary Structure / Style • •
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• Language • •
Even in the parts of the poem that deal with the present when food is plentiful, there are suggestions of the past famine. For example, the fingers that go ‘dead in the cold’. The language of the third section helps the reader to understand the negative impact of the
• Context • • The poem deals with two different potato harvests. One is the harvest from the present day that goes successfully and which delivers a rich crop. The second potato harvest looks back to the famine of 1845 when the crop failed and many people starved. Whilst the famine is no longer a threat, its ongoing fear remains and this can be seen in the use of religious language throughout the poem. For example, the bowed heads of the potato pickers suggest the desire to respect the gods and show them respect. The poem begins with Heaney describing workers in a potato field in Ireland. They follow a machine that turns up the crop and they put these into a basket and then store them. The second section of the poem involves the healthy potatoes being described. The third section writes about the famine of the past. Fungus destroyed the entire crop of potatoes and this happened for three consecutive years. Ireland was devastated and there were many deaths with people being forced to flee Ireland. In the final section of the poem, Heaney returns to the first section of the poem – Ireland in the 1960s at lunchtime. The workers sit happily, with food to eat. The rhythm of the poem changes in the third section of the poem. This is well suited to the changing subject matter of this part of the poem. Connections are established between each of the sections – the potatoes that are compared to skulls in section two, link to the literal skeletons of section three. The use of religious imagery in the poem is a means of helping the reader to understand the importance of the potato harvest to the people of Ireland.
• Summary Structure / Style • •
•
• • •
• Language • •
Even in the parts of the poem that deal with the present when food is plentiful, there are suggestions of the past famine. For example, the fingers that go ‘dead in the cold’. The language of the third section helps the reader to understand the negative impact of the
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