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.
 Digging” Summary
 I hold a short pen between my fingers, where it fits tightly, like a gun.

Outside my window I hear the clear sound of a shovel working the pebbly earth. It's
my father out there, digging.

Looking down, I see my father straining as he bends low to tend to the

flowerbeds. When he comes back up, I think of him twenty years in the past, bending
down in a steady rhythm to dig in the neat rows of potatoes.

His booted leg is placed sturdily and comfortably on the shovel, the shaft of which is
secured against the inside of his knee. He pulls potatoes up from the ground, and then
digs deeply into the ground again. This time he's replanting all the potatoes that we'd
help him pick. We loved feeling how hard and cool they felt in our hands.

My God, my old man was incredible with a shovel. So was his father.

No one could beat my grandfather when it came to cutting turf on the swampy land
that he worked. I remember once bringing him milk in a bottle, which I'd sealed
messily by using some crumpled up paper as a cork. He stood up straight and drank it
all, and then got back to his work right away. He cut neat slices in the turf, throwing
the heavy surplus earth over his shoulder, digging deeper and deeper to get to the best
stuff.

I remember the chilly smell of the potato mould and the squishing sound of the wet
earth. Those memories are still alive in my mind. Unlike my father and grandfather,
though, my labor doesn't involve a shovel.

I hold a short pen between my fingers. It's my tool—this is what I'll dig with.
 Stanza One
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

The first stanza contains only two lines. The speaker is focusing on the pen in his
hand. Heaney utilizes a simile, telling the reader the pen rests “snug as a gun.” The
reference to a gun is no coincidence: Heaney expects the reader to infer that the
pen is his instrument, his weapon. This idea will repeat itself in the last stanza of
the poem.

Stanza Two
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
(…)
My father, digging. I look down
In the second stanza, the speaker hears the sound of his father’s garden spade
sinking “into gravelly ground.” He gazes down at his father while he works in the
garden. There is no punctuation at the end of the last line in stanza two, the thought
is continued into the third stanza.

Stanza Three
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
(…)
Where he was digging.
Heaney utilizes a flashback quite cleverly in the third stanza. The speaker is
suddenly transported to twenty years ago, watching his father complete the same
task.

Stanza Four
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
(…)
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
The fourth stanza is rich in description, as the speaker paints the image of his father
digging through the potato beds.

Stanza Five
By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.

The fifth stanza is comprised of just two simple lines as the speaker marvels at his
father. The reader is then transported even further through time as the speaker then
conjures images of his grandfather performing a similar task.

Stanza Six
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
(…)
For the good turf. Digging.

The eight lines contained in the sixth stanza are the longest in the poem. The first
two lines read:

My grandfather cut more turf in a day

Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Here, the reader gets a glimpse into the setting of the poem. In Ireland, peat moss
has been used as an alternative to coal. Cutting turf is an incredibly grueling task
and the fact that Heaney claims his grandfather could cut more than any other man
signifies not only the physical strength of his grandfather, but Heaney’s own
admiration for the hard work his grandfather was able to do by himself.

He then shares an anecdote with his reader as he describes encountering his

grandfather out on the bog one day. The speaker describes a day when he brought a
bottle of milk to his grandfather. Heaney’s grandfather barely stops his work,
quickly drinking the milk and then returning to digging and cutting.
 Stanza Seven
The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
(…)
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

The seventh stanza returns the reader to the present day, as the speaker sits at his
writing desk.

The memories are so vivid and alive in the speaker that he can actually smell the
freshly dug potatoes and the “soggy peat”. He can hear the sound the peat made as
it was cut. The speaker realizes that unlike his father and grandfather, he has no
spade to follow in their footsteps.

Stanza Eight
Between my finger and my thumb
(…)
I’ll dig with it.

What he does have, however, is revealed in the eighth and final stanza, which
contains only three lines. Much is contained in these three simple lines. First,
Heaney uses repetition, as once again, he describes holding his pen between his
finger and thumb.

Heaney’s diction here is also curious, as he uses the word “squat” to describe his
instrument. While it can describe the physical appearance of the pen
itself, Heaney could also be showing the connection between himself and his father
and grandfather, both of whom would have to squat in order to properly dig for the
potatoes and peat moss. The last line, “I’ll dig with it,” signifies that while Heaney
realizes his instrument is different from previous generations, he is still completing
an arduous task. While his father and grandfather dug for potatoes and moss, he is
digging for the right word, constantly attempting to create sustenance through his
words
 Analysis of Literary Devices Used in “Digging”

1. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought or clause that does not come to an

end at a line break; instead, it moves over the next line. For example,

“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.”

2. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their

five senses. For example, “Between my finger and my thumb”, “The coarse
boot nestled on the lug, the shaft” and “The cold smell of potato mould, the
squelch and slap.”
3. Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same
line in quick successions. For example, the sound of /t/ in “He rooted out tall
tops, buried the bright edge deep” and the sound of /c/ in “Of soggy peat, the
curt cuts of an edge”.
4. Symbolism: Symbolism means to use symbols to signify ideas and
qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal
meanings. “Digging” symbolizes tradition.
5. Simile: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made
between the objects that are different in nature using as or like. For example,
“The squat pen rests; snug as a gun”. Here the pen is compared to a gun.
Though not physically, a pen or a written word can also hurt people.

Themes
Inheritance
This poem focuses strongly on what the speaker has inherited from his father and his
grandfather. Their work ethics and consistency stand out to him the most; he thinks of how
long his father has been doing the same thing over and over, and the strength with which his
grandfather dug. When the speaker says he has "no spade to follow men like them," his voice
is tinged with sorrow. Yet he feels he has inherited the spirit with which they dug, even if he
has chosen a different path. He tries to liken writing to digging, perhaps because breaking
away from the tradition makes him feel like an outsider, like he cannot fully understand his
father and grandfather. This poem is his attempts to tie himself into his heritage.
Work
Work might be the most important theme in this poem. The speaker focuses on his own
craft, as well as the crafts of his father and grandfather. He distinguishes between the
different types of digging—for flowers, potatoes, or peat—and much of his language
expresses the strenuous nature of the farming work. The speaker does not spend as much time
explicating his own craft, but that may be because the poem itself is meant to be evidence of
his skill as a writer.
 Sustenance
Sustenance appears as a significant theme in this poem. Since his father and grandfather dig
for different things, the speaker focuses more on how the work they did that sustained their
families than on the particular objects of their labor (though clearly the potatoes and the peat
play important roles in the speaker's memory). The bottle of milk that the speaker brings his
grandfather emphasizes the importance of sustenance through sources like food, but the
speaker's role carrying the milk tells the readers that family plays an important part in the
idea of sustenance: sustaining a family is the goal of work, but it is also the foundation upon
which every person builds his or her career.

Background of Author

"Digging" is one of Seamus Heaney's best-known poems and appeared first in the New
Statesman magazine in 1964. Two years later it was the first poem in Heaney's first published
book Death of a Naturalist.

This book launched the young poet's career and he went on to become one of the world's
most famous poets, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature no less, in 1995. The only
other Irish poet to claim this accolade was W.B.Yeats back in 1923, so Heaney is in the best
of company.

"Digging" is a basic no-nonsense title and reflects the strong feelings Heaney has for the land.
He grew up on a farm, Mossbawn in County Derry, where his father worked the soil and sold
cattle for a living.

 Work, ritual and the need to craft are three of the themes that run throughout his
poetry. They are woven with a keen instinct for the special sounds words produce -
harsh consonants, deep long vowels - placed on the page with a knowing sense of
form.