Digging by Seamus Heaney ( Modern Poetry )

 Modern Poetry by Famous Modern Poet: 

Digging by Seamus Heaney

Digging is a very  representative poem of Heaney. It is a modern poem by a modern poet who loved to measure and to express in detail, his affinity and association with his past, both ancestral past and Irish past. Digging is one such poem that he does with very intense lyrical quality. We see the emotional tone that is so noticeable in this poem.

Digging means to dig the ground, to prepare it for cultivation. We may dig to take out the roots or to find  vegetables like potatoes, carrots etc. that are buried in the soil. The subject of the poem is rooted in poet’s reverence, admiration and love for his farming ancestry. We see how much his heart is into the act of Irish soil and Irish farming.

·       Between my finger. . . . as a gun.

In the beginning we see the word ‘squat ’which means a resting position, when we sit on our feet but not putting our bottom to the ground. It is simply an awkward position. So the poet is sitting on his desk and holding a pen in his hand, probably there is something in poet’s mind that he wants to write and express in words but the act of creating, act of writing, has not just begun. It's not just the act of creating rather poet's subjective tension  between two professions. First one is writing that he wants to take up as an educated person. The second profession is farming or digging that was the profession adopted by his ancestors like his father and grandfather and great grand fathers. There is a kind of tension, an awkwardness of his feeling between these two professions whether he should be a farmer and digging like his ancestors or whether he should be just a writer. This is the tension that is central to this poem. Let's see how he resolves this tension.

·       Under my window. . . I look down

This expression snug as a gun is very important that you would understand by the end of the poem once you get deep into it. First we will talk generally that the poet is sitting on a desk and the desk must be near a window. When he is thinking to write something, there comes a sound from the window. His attention is completely to this  'clean' rasping sound. Someone is working with the spade and it is sinking into the ground. Rasping means when two things rub with each other. The spade is rubbing to the ground and sound is coming clear and clean to his mind. So his father is working in the field and it is very near, he is looking through the window.  The father is bending and working on the ground, so his back that is rounded, is visible to the poet.

·       Till his straining. . . was digging.

The word ‘straining' means physical labor has been picked up by the poet’s eye. Body is tensed means the poet here wants to show us the physical strength of his father. Poet is so much into this site, he is looking at his father, noticing the details and loving so much that he is transported twenty years back. He remembers twenty years back when he was a child, and he himself would be participating with his father and his father would be stooping in very rhythmical and symmetrical movements, when they would be having potato drills, either they would be planting potatoes or they would be taking it out from the soil. So his father would be bending, coming up, bending, coming up, bending coming up, and this rhythmical movement poet remembers from his childhood days. This also tells us that his father has been doing this exercise ever since he remembers. The poet must be a child at that time but he remembers clearly his father working at the fields.

·       The coarse. . . . our hands.

In these lines poet uses a word ‘Lug', that is a kind of wooden box, kept for putting different things. Nestled means it is near and rubbing against the lug whereas shaft is the handle of the spade. His father digs the spade's face into the soil. The very word firmly tells us how certain were these movements.

As a child he would handle the new potatoes, and give those new potatoes to his father to sow in the soil. Bright edge means the eye of the potatoes and children feel cool hardness of the potatoes that have been taken and now they are planting them for the next crop. They love to handle them.

·       By God . . . . old man.

These two lines are a clear admiration and sense of awe. The poet as a child, and as an adult now, can see that his father can handle a spade very smartly, expertly, with such physical strength and grace like his grandfather. This tells us that he knows his forefathers were all farmers, all working with spade.

Spade here is not just a tool used for digging, but it is a metaphor for an occupation. It is a representative symbol of profession, of farming, of working with land, of cultivation etc. He remembers that his father used to do exactly same kind of work 20 years before. So there is a kind of awe in his tone and he is so excited and amazed at the ability of his father and grandfathers who could handle and work with the spade. This is also the continuity of this profession in their family that he alludes to.

·       My grandfather. . . . Digging.

Bog is a kind of wet land and turf is a kind of grass. And toner is also the name of a place. So the bog toner was the land where his grandfather used to work very hardly. Once he carried him milk and the mouth of this bottle had no proper capping. It was shut tight with the help of a paper. He tells that after his grandfather drank the milk and finished it, he went straight to work without wasting any time. Nicking and slicing means cutting, and heaving means piling the bundles or sods that his grandfather was making and putting on his shoulders for good turf while digging.

·       The cold smell. . . . dig with it.

Grandfather would show his muscle strength and poet  remembers his admiration. That music of digging is very alive in poet’s mind. The memory of that act of planting potatoes or digging them has very much detailed picture in his mind. Living roots is that idea which is existing in poet’s mind. He is finally taking the decision of that uneasy choice for him. He accepts this fact that he has no spade to follow his ancestors rather he has this pen with which he can dig. He decides to choose writing as a profession and he will dig with his pen.

Now if we go back to first line we see he compared his pen with the gun. To compare two professions, he has this in mind i.e. physical  strength, Consciousness in his mind that he is not manly as his father etc., though he doesn’t acknowledge it, so he compares pen with gun. He wants to make him sure that he is equally powerful and he is not meant for farming but writing. He is excited and amazed with the profession of his ancestors , how physically strong they were. Back straining, knees working for the spade, could cut more grass, all these details tell that his whole admiration is for this physical strength that his ancestors had.

There should be a comparison between pen and spade,  but we see comparison between pen and gun. This shows his complex in the beginning but it is resolved at the end when he finally decides to dig with his pen as he has living roots (ideas) in his mind which would be dig through it on the paper.