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A poem about the poet's father and grandfather digging potatoes and turf, and the poet's own choice of a pen as a tool. Read the full text, analysis, and context of this classic Irish poem.
- Digging
Digging. May 10, 2016. View the full text of the poem in...
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- Digging
Learn about the themes, symbols, and poetic devices of Heaney's famous poem "Digging", which explores his family's farming tradition and his own craft of writing. Read the full text, line-by-line explanations, and examples of alliteration, assonance, caesura, and consonance.
- Summary
- Analysis of Digging
- Historical Significance
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This poem is autobiographical in nature. The speaker, presumably Heaney, is sitting at his writing desk, preparing to write, when he hears his father working in the garden outside. This conjures memories of the speaker as a young boy, listening and watching as his father digs in the potato garden. The speaker marvels at how well his father digs, wh...
The poem is comprised of eight stanzas of varying lengths. There is no set rhyme scheme, though some of the lines do rhyme.
While this poem certainly is not political in nature, it does give a glimpse into the lives of hardworking Irishmen. In previous generations, men had to dig for both food and fuel. Because Ireland does not have a wealth of coal, men often had to dig through the bogs to acquire enough peat moss that could be burned as an alternative means of fuel.
Learn about the autobiographical poem 'Digging' by Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney, who contrasts his writing with his ancestors' hard work. Explore the poem's structure, imagery, and historical significance in this comprehensive guide.
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- Poetry Analyst
Learn about the meaning and context of Seamus Heaney's debut poem "Digging," which explores his family's rural heritage and his own poetic vocation. Find out how the speaker recalls his father and grandfather's manual labor and how he uses language to honor them.
A poem from Seamus Heaney’s 1966 collection Death Of A Naturalist, inspired by his Irish homeland’s potato farmers and his own family history.
Oct 19, 2016 · Learn about the meaning, language, and effects of Heaney's famous poem 'Digging', which compares his vocation as a poet with his father's and grandfather's work as diggers. Discover how the poem uses sound, imagery, and structure to explore the themes of heritage, identity, and art.
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Learn about the meaning, context, and structure of Heaney's poem "Digging", which explores his choice of poetry as a vocation. Find summaries, analyses, quotes, and more in this comprehensive study guide.
