Digging

by Seamus Heaney

Genres: Poetry, School, Classics

2 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Works of Irish poet Seamus Justin Heaney reflect landscape, culture, and political crises of his homeland and include the collections Wintering Out (1972) and Field Work (1979) as well as a translation of Beowulf (1999). He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995.

This writer and lecturer won this prize "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past."

Heaney on Wikipedia.

Reviews

[ViZz]

"But I've no spade to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with. "

[HappyAustin2263 Chung · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poem has an interesting take on "passing on the legacy." Where one's continuation of family happens not via tradition, but rather by effort, and the willingness to create something anew for the future. A connection between farming potatoes and writing is least expected.

[Colin Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

My main takeaway from this poem was that one can achieve the same level of success and productivity with different disciplines. Whether one is a farmer or a writer, productivity and success are self-derived. Despite the fact that the narrator's father and grandfather were all part of the agricultural business, he took the road less taken and reaped the same level of fulfillment from a different practice.

[Sean Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good way to communicate the point that while your family may have been great and had generational success, every new generation has to start anew with their own path and from ground one. The hard work of your family may inspire you and get you to the starting point, but you yourself must turn that squat pen into a spade/shovel and dig to success.

[Philip Bliss · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was an amazing poem that critically explored the themes of respect for hard war, family tradition, the past shaping the present, and writing as a form of "digging", as seen in the repetition in the beginning and at the end of the poem.

[William Park · Rating 3 out of 5]

This poem made me think about how you don’t have to follow the exact same path as your family to still respect and connect with them. It kind of shifts your perspective—what matters isn’t doing the same thing, but finding your own way to carry that legacy forward.

[Tumin · Rating 3 out of 5]

tense shift,
object shift,
internal rhyme,
slant rhyme.

[Łukasz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute beauty.

[Anemone Tabagari · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun."

განმეორებით ვკითხულობ ამ სიტყვებს და ჩემი პოეზიის განრისხებულ დემონს შავ ცრემლს ვაპკურებ...

[ally douglas? · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing as physical work

[Scythe zzz · Rating 4 out of 5]

top tier poem

[Anna Sokolowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for UCLR 100E.

[Brandon Skanes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Went over this with one of my students. a fantastic poem that truly honours legacy.

[Chloe Yoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever to mirror his "digging" with pen to his father "digging" into the soil to show his ambition fo trying to keep his roots but in a different path.

[Ian Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a great poem that explored the themes family tradition and past influence via repetitive comparison to "digging"

[•Paula• · Rating 3 out of 5]

Torn between the romantization of his childhood and the new way of recovering his origins

[Xiu Lim · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...