PRACTICE EXAM 2/RESPONSE AND ANALYSIS

"Digging," by Seamus Heaney, is a poem written by a young man during his impressionable years.

The narrator speaks of watching his father/grandfather plant, and harvest potatoes for 20 years,"Bends low, comes up twenty years away,"(Heaney 7).  Although he is very proud of the hard work both men displayed, which is evident in his use of rhyme, diction, and tone.  The narrator clearly doesn't want to follow in their footsteps.


The narrators reminiscing of the above gave him fond memories.  The pleasure of the memories can be felt in the first-fourth lines of the poem.  These lines flowed rhyming the words, "thumb, gun, sound and ground,"(Heaney 1-4).  After that the narrators direction changed from carefree memories to a more serious reflective tone. 

The diction used, purposeful words which allowed the reader to actually hear the digging, "the squelch and slap of the soggy peat/the curt cuts of and edge",(Heaney 25-26).  With the minds eye you can hear the spade cut through the earth, as the men went about their work.  The narrator observing the hard work put forth by both men.


The narrators tone gave voice to a young man, who had great pride, as well as, respect for the hard work his father and grandfather portrayed.  This was evident when he spoke of his father, "By god the old man could handle a spade/Just like his old man,"(Heaney 15-16).  He was beaming with pride when he said, "My grandfather cut more turf in a day/Than any other an on Toner's bog,"(Heaney 17-18).


Although the narrator voiced immense pride for both  men's hard work, the conflict for him, was his not wanting to follow in their foot steps.  He was a writer and would choose a pen over a spade, "But I've no spade to follow men like them//The Squat pen rests, I'll dig with it,"(Heaney 28-31).