“Digging,” by Seamus Heaney, is a poem narrated from a writer, whose family’s tradition is to work with the earth in ways that necessitate digging. He is proud of his father and grandfather for their skillfulness in their work. However, he tells us that he wishes instead to be a writer, which will break him away from the family tradition of working with the earth.
“Digging” contains nine stanzas of two to five lines of varying lengths. The only rhyming that this poem contains are a handful of slant rhymes and a single complete rhyme, which causes the poem to be mostly patternless. Perhaps the author breaks the traditional patterns of poetry to symbolize how the narrator is breaking his family’s tradition of working with the earth.
Heaney starts the poem by describing the pen resting in the narrator’s hand, in the writing position. “Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests; snug as a gun” (page 1140, line 1). With this, I cannot help but think that perhaps Heaney is writing about himself. Maybe he himself had broken his family tradition when he decided to become a writer. He also compares the pen to a gun, using the simile “snug as a gun” (line 2). Perhaps he is saying that writing can be powerful or influential like a gun. It is also worth noting that this stanza is also one of the few that have a rhyme. This stanza has a slant rhyme.
The second stanza uses imagery to reveal the setting and the situation. The narrator describes the sound of the shovel digging into the ground under his window by his father, working in the potato drills. He then looks down, perhaps out of his window. The third and fourth lines are the only two lines in the poem that fully rhyme. Then the fifth line has a slant rhyme against these two. This is not an ordinary way to rhyme poems, which further makes this poem patternless.
The next few stanzas I found hard to understand at first sight. The narrator’s father bends low, then comes back up “twenty years away” (line 7). Possibly this indicates that he has been working in the dirt for the past twenty years. This makes sure the readers know that he is not just doing an “every once in a while” dig in the back yard, but that this is perhaps his occupation. The next two lines uses imagery to show that he is going through potato drills, “stooping in rhythm” (line 8). This makes it clear to me that he is tending to a potato patch.
The next stanza describes the father digging out ripe potato plants. Line 10 and 11 describe him pushing a shovel into the ground. The author uses technical words such as “lug” and “shaft,” and carefully describes how he leverages the shovel with his boot and knee. Perhaps this is meant to show that the father’s labor is very manual and physical.
Line 14 is simple to read but has a twist to it: “Loving [the potato’s] cool hardness in our hands.” What was attractive to me is that he said “our” hands. When he uses “our” he is putting himself down there with his father, as if he is remembering helping him with the potatoes from another time.
The fifth stanza has only two lines, which rather singles it out as important. In the first line, it is brought into focus that his father is old, by the way he calls him an “old man.” Yet the narrator portrays him as skilled with the spade. This shows his appreciation for his father. The other line in the stanza, “Just like his old man” (line 16) compares the narrator’s dad with his grandfather, saying them the same, both good with the spade.
The next two stanzas describe the grandfather as apposed to the father. In line 17 and 18 the narrator seems to “brag” about how well his grandfather was at cutting turf. The grandfather is similar to the father in that they both work with the earth. Both jobs require heavy shoveling and physical work in the dirt. In the lines 19-21, the narrator describes how he once carried milk to his grandfather, and how he only spared a second to drink it and then fell back to work. This portrays him as a hard worker.
Line 22 describes the grandfather “nicking and slicing” the turf into squares. This is another one of the few places that rhyme is used. “Nicking” rhymes with “Slicing.” I think the rhyme here rather makes it sound like the grandfather has a fast clean rhythm when cutting the turf.
The second to last stanza starts by appealing to our senses when it describes the “cold smell of potato mould,” the “squelch and slap of soggy peat,” and the “curt cuts of an edge” (line 25-26). This awakening of the narrator’s senses seems to stir up his memories when he says “Through living roots awaken in my head.” To me the narrator seems to be realizing his “living roots,” or in other words his family tradition. He is realizing that his family’s tradition is to work with the earth, and that it is their “roots”. However, he concludes that he has “no spade to follow men like them” (line 28). Of course, he does not mean this literally, but perhaps he is saying he does not have the skill or strength, or even the interest to follow them in their footsteps.
The last stanza relates back to the first stanza. Heaney reiterates how the pen rests in his hand using the exact same words. This time, however, he adds something: “The squat pen rests / I’ll dig with it” (line 30-31.) This last line says a lot and can be interpreted many ways. I believe, however, that he is saying that he chooses to dig his life with a pen, instead of with a shovel, as his father and grandfather have chosen. He instead chooses to be a writer.

Works Cited

• Heaney, Seamus. “Digging.” Connections, Literature for Compositions. Quentin Miller and Julia Nash. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. 1140.