“Digging”
Seamus Heaney
Meet Seamus Heaney
Key Terms (record in your notebooks under the appropriate
topic)
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Click the image for his biography.
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Enjambment {structure} running from one line
to another without an end punctuation
Extended metaphor {figurative language} a
continuous comparison throughout a
paragraph or lines in a poem
Simile {figurative language} a comparison
using “like” or “as”
Alliteration {figurative language} series of
consonant sounds
Imagery {figurative language} descriptions that
appeal to the physical senses
Pre-reading: What skills, traditions, or gifts have been passed down to you from your grandparents?
(type below)
Click ​HERE ​to hear Seamus Heaney read
“Digging”
Annotations
(Paraphrase literal meaning & write questions, make
connections, identify shifts)
Digging
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.
Analysis Questions
1. What is the effect of Heaney’s use of enjambment from one stanza to another?
2. What is the extended metaphor? What is the effect of comparing these two things?
3. Identify a line that appeals to one of the physical senses. What is the effect?
Writing Prompt
In the poem “Digging” by Seamus Heaney (1966), the speaker reminisces about former generations.
Read the poem carefully. Then, in a well-written paragraph, analyze how Heaney uses a poetic element
or technique to develop the complex relationship between his identity and previous generations.
Skills Practiced:
● STR 3C: Explain the function of structure in a text.
● FIG 6A: Identify and explain the function of a simile.
● FIG 6B: Identify and explain the function of a metaphor.
● LAN 7A: Develop a paragraph that includes 1) a claim that requires defense with evidence from
the text and 2) the evidence itself.