Digging

Digging
By Seamus Heaney



Digging is an autobiographical account of a common subject in Heaneys writing, ‘His family and the bog’. Heaney uses flashback throughout the poem to bring us back to the day of his fathers prime

Heaney opens the poem with a startling simile “snug as a gun”. Seamus feels unique with his pen, it’s his comfort, his talent and his weapon. In the second verse I believe the poet is composing or studying, he is interrupted by his father “A clean rasping sound when the spade sinks into the ground.” The rhythm is extremely slow here. “My father digging. I look down.” The use of pause emphasis the line and suggests that digging is a constant chore that Heaney’s father carries out. It is evident that Seamus admires his father very much and gets enjoyment in spectating this simple task.

The digging seems to spark a memory in his mind and he begins to reminisce. He recreates a moment when his father was in the bog. “Stopping in...