PRACTICE EXAM 2/PREWRITING: ANALYSIS/RESPONSE

I.  Introduction: "Digging", by Seasum Heaney.

     a. a son compares his tool which is a pen to the tool of his father/grandfather, which is a spade.
     b. Thesis: use of rhyme, diction and tone to tell story

II. Rhyme:

     a. lines in stanza I and II rhyme

III.Diction

     a. word choices used to describe digging, "the squelch and slap of soggy peat/the curt cuts of an
         edge," (Heaney 25-26).

IV.  Tone

        a. Narrators voice depicting pride at how hard his father worked, " By god, the old man could
            handle a spade/Just like his old man," (Heaney 15-16).
         b. "My grandfather cut more turf in a day/Than any other man on Toner's bog," (Heaney 17-18).

V.    Conclusion:

         a.  Although the narrator was very proud of how hard his father/grandfather worked, he decided
              he wouldn't follow in their  footsteps, "But I 've no spade to follow men like them///The 
            squat  pen rests, I'll dig with it,: (Heaney 28-31).