"Digging" by Seamus Heaney

"Digging" by 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 flowerbeds   

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 old man.

My grandfather cut more turf in a 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 to 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 them.

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests.

I’ll dig with it.

Summary,

 "Digging" by Seamus Heaney is a celebrated poem from his collection Death of a Naturalist (1966). The poem reflects on Heaney’s relationship with his family’s farming tradition, his craft as a poet, and the changing nature of labor across generations. It explores themes of identity, heritage, and the power of writing, using rich imagery and symbolism.

In the poem, the speaker (often identified as Heaney himself) reflects on watching his father and grandfather digging in the fields, working with the spade, a symbol of manual labor. As he observes them, he recalls the physicality and skill involved in their agricultural work, comparing it to his own profession as a writer.

The poem begins with the speaker holding a pen in his hand, which he likens to a gun. He watches his father digging in the garden, which triggers memories of his father working the land in his younger years and his grandfather, who was even more adept at digging. The speaker describes how his grandfather would cut turf from the bog with great expertise.

The act of digging is portrayed with a sense of skill and pride. The father’s labor in the field is not just mundane work, but a highly respected and necessary task in the rural farming community.

Turf cutting, like potato digging, is a traditional rural activity. It involves digging up peat from the bog, which was then used as fuel for fires. The grandfather’s expertise in this labor shows a deep connection to the land and a mastery of the tools used to shape and harvest it. For Heaney, the grandfather's proficiency in this manual labor is a source of pride and inspiration, making him a figure to look up to.

However, the speaker acknowledges that he has not followed in their footsteps of manual labor. Instead of digging the earth, his “tool” is the pen, and his labor is in writing. The poem ends with the speaker embracing his craft, using the metaphor of digging with a pen to assert that his work, though different from his ancestors’, still has value and is a form of digging into his heritage, history, and identity.

Themes:

1. Heritage and Tradition:

   • The speaker reflects on the physical labor of his forefathers, who worked the land with skill and dedication. He is deeply respectful of this tradition, even though he has chosen a different path. The poem explores the tension between honoring family heritage and carving out one's own identity.
   • The spade, a central symbol in the poem, represents this tradition of hard, manual labor, passed down through generations.

2. Writing as Labor:

   • The pen and the spade serve as symbols of different kinds of labor—manual vs. intellectual. The speaker, a poet, uses the pen as his tool, which he equates to digging into the human experience, memory, and language.
   • Heaney’s metaphorical “digging” with his pen implies that writing can be as powerful and valuable as physical labor, even though it is of a different nature.

3. Identity and Self-Realization:

   • The speaker comes to terms with his choice to pursue writing instead of farming. Though his craft is different, he still connects with the legacy of hard work and skill passed down by his ancestors.
   • Heaney acknowledges the value in his own profession and reconciles it with the familial expectations, asserting that both kinds of work have worth.

4. Admiration for Physical Labor:

   • Throughout the poem, there is a palpable sense of admiration for the physicality and skill involved in farming. The speaker observes his father’s and grandfather’s work with awe, recognizing the mastery and pride they took in their labor.

5. Generational Change:

   • The poem also speaks to the inevitable change from one generation to the next. The speaker doesn’t follow in the literal footsteps of his father and grandfather but instead chooses a different path. The shift from physical labor to intellectual work mirrors broader societal changes, where traditional rural ways of life are giving way to more modern professions.