Digging - Please comment here, thanks!

"Digging" by Seamus Heaney (You can comment on this poem)

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pin rest; snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
⁵ My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

¹⁰ The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

¹⁵ By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.

My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
²⁰ Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.

²⁵ The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
³⁰ The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.

"Digging" is one of Heaney's most famous poems. Its a very personal message that conveys a lot of emotion; the isolation the speaker feels from his family, his trepidation at being the first generation not to follow in his father's footsteps, but also his resolution and determination in forging his own way.

I especially liked this poem because it felt extremely sincere, especially after I had done background research on Heaney and learned more about his personal history. I think its very easy to relate to, and conveys the difficulty and thrill of choosing your own path.

Literary Devices

1. Extended metaphor: Throughout the poem, the term "digging" is used metaphorically as well as literally. Metaphorically it is used to imply a certain way of living. The line "But I've no spade to follow men like them" (26) especially conveys this meaning, as the speaker doesn't possess the intentions or the desire to live as his father and grandfather did. Instead of the way of the life the spade denotes, he chooses the pen and the life it signifies, saying, "I'll dig with it" (31) in the final line. Although he obviously cannot dig with a pen, in this sentence the meaning is purely metaphorical to represent the speaker's choosing his own path.

2. Repetition: Throughout the poem, and even in the title, the word "digging" is often repeated because it is the central idea. The places where it is repeated- "My father, digging" (5), "he was digging" (9), and simply "Digging" (24)- are all in stanzas where he is describing his family, to reinforce the distinction between him and his predecessors.

Another instance of repetition is the phrase "Between my finger and my thumb", which appears in lines 1 and 29, at the beginning and the end of the poem. This use of repetition serves to bring the poem in a circle, as the speaker arrives back where he began but now sees things in a different way.

3. Caesura: Line 24 goes "For the good turf. Digging.", imparting the last word with a distinct heaviness that could be perceived as being preceded by a significant pause. "Digging" is the most significant phrase throughout the poem, and in this instance it appears entirely on its own, reestablishing its importance.

The Grauballe Man

"The Grauballe Man" by Seamus Heaney

As if he had been poured
in tar, he lies
on a pillow of turf
and seems to weep

⁵ the black river of himself.
The grain of his wrists
is like bog oak,
the ball of his heel

like a basalt egg.
¹⁰ His instep has shrunk
cold as a swan’s foot
or a wet swamp root.

His hips are the ridge
and purse of a mussel,
¹⁵ his spine an eel arrested
under a glisten of mud.

The head lifts,
the chin is a visor
raised above the vent
²⁰ of his slashed throat

that has tanned and toughened.
The cured wound
opens inwards to a dark
elderberry place.

²⁵ Who will say ‘corpse’
to his vivid cast?
Who will say ‘body’
to his opaque repose?

And his rusted hair,
³⁰ a mat unlikely
as a foetus’s.
I first saw his twisted face

in a photograph,
a head and shoulder
³⁵ out of the peat,
bruised like a forceps baby,

but now he lies
perfected in my memory,
down to the red horn
⁴⁰ of his nails,

hung in the scales
with beauty and atrocity:
with the Dying Gaul
too strictly compassed

⁴⁵ on his shield,
with the actual weight
of each hooded victim,
slashed and dumped.

In "The Grauballe Man", Heaney addresses a phenomena known as the "bog bodies", bodies of victims that had been preserved for hundreds of years, some since even the Iron Age, due to the natural chemicals in bogs. Heaney had been deeply struck by the bodies, which he first saw in a photograph, as the poem suggests, and later for himself. They became the subject of several of his poems, including "The Tollund Man" and "Bogland". Heaney gave his reason for his preoccupation with the bodies by explaining that the photographs of the bog victims reminded him of photographs of atrocities in the many Irish political and religious struggles. I thought it was fascinating that Heaney attempted to convey the complex emotions the bog bodies evoked in him through his poems. He does so with such skill in this poem that the speaker's struggle with the grotesque beauty of the body is both vivid and compelling.

A description of the "Grauballe Man" and images - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grauballe_Man

A description of the "Dying Gaul" and images - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Gaul

Literary Terms

1. Enjambment: The entire poem reflects a successful employment of enjambment. Almost all of the lines are ended well before the sentence is over, giving the poem a dramatic, halting rhythm, with a sense of heavy solemnity that reflects the morbid subject.

2. Parallelism: The seventh stanza uses parallelism to add emphasis to the surreal nature of the subject: "Who will say 'corpse' / to his vivid cast? / Who will say 'body' / to his opaque repose?" (25-28), it asks, referencing the realistic appearance of the preserved man. The parallel structure of the sentences enables the two questions to stand out from the rest of the poem, and the identical beginning of each better contrasts the ends, "vivid cast" (26) with "opaque repose" (28). This contrast is another form of illustration of the complex fate of the body, which has been dead for many years and yet is disturbingly lifelike.

3. Allusion: The entire poem is an allusion to the 1952 discovery of a bog body in Denmark that had been nearly perfectly preserved for over two millennia. The body was put on display and was known as "The Grauballe Man", which the title directly references. Another allusion present in the poem is more subtle; the speaker mentions "the Dying Gaul" (43), which is actually the name of a famous sculpture that depicts a wounded Celtic warrior who is close to death. The pose of the sculpture is reminiscent of that of the bog man, which might have been the root of the reference.

4. Simile: As he attempts to describe the incredible phenomena of the preserved body, the speaker has to resort to simile. "The grain of his wrists / is like bog oak, / the ball of his heel / like a basalt egg" (6-9) he states, or "cold as a swan's foot" (11). The comparisons make an effort to give a vivid picture of the body by summoning more familiar images to mind.

Blackberry-Picking

Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heany

Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full,
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.

In this poem, Heaney captures the fleeting nature of experience through beautiful and vivid description of blackberry picking. Every year after berry picking, the speaker would attempt to hold onto the sensations by hoarding large amounts of the fruit, but each time it would inevitably rot. This reflects how it is impossible to hold onto the good experiences forever; a large part of what makes them so valuable is their transience. Yet even knowing this, we still try to, as the speaker attempts year after year, despite knowing better. I found this poem touching because of its accuracy, as it seems to portray many ideas we have about past experiences that are difficult to put into words.

Literary Terms

1. Aphorism: In the final line of the poem, the speaker states "Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not" (24), an observation that reflects his awareness of the inevitable cycle of hope and disappointment in life. Although he knows better from past experience, he cannot keep himself from hoping that this time will be different.

2. Diction: The poet's choice of words determine the tone and lasting impression of the poem. In the first stanza, the word choice is distinctly sensual: "its flesh was sweet" (5), "lust for / Picking" (7-8). However, the second stanza, there is a shift to diction associated with death and decay: "rat-grey fungus" (20), "The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour" (21), "smelt of rot" (23). The diction mirrors the message of the poem, which initially deals with the sweetness of memories but then shifts to disappointment and loss.

3. Allusion: In line 16, the speaker makes a reference to Bluebeard, a fairy tale character who murders his wives. By employing the description "our palms sticky as Bluebeard's" (16), the poet attaches a violent, sinister edge to an innocent activity with the image of a husband who's hands are covered with the blood of his wives.

4. Half rhyme: The poem utilizes a rhyme scheme of AABBCCDDEEFF... (etc), where the last word of each line rhymes with the next: "clot" (3) and "knot" (4), "lust for" (7) and "hunger" (8). Many of the rhymes, such as "sour" (21) and "fair" (22), are half or imperfect rhymes. This use of subtle rhymes rather than more obvious ones keeps the poem from sounding forced, while still adding to its natural rhythm.

5. Alliteration and consonance: Throughout the poem, Heaney skillfully uses subtle alliteration and consonance which, like his rhymes, add to the voice of the poem without overpowering it or sounding forced. Examples of the alliteration used include "briars ... bleached ... boots" (10), "peppered ... pricks ... palms" (15-16), "fruit fermented ... flesh" (21). The use of consonance can be seen in "hayfields, cornfields" (11) and "trekked and picked" (12). These devices add to the cadence of the poem.

Twice Shy

"Twice Shy" by Seamus Heaney

Her scarf a la Bardot,
In suede flats for the walk,
She came with me one evening
For air and friendly talk.
⁵ We crossed the quiet river,
Took the embankment walk.

Traffic holding its breath,
Sky a tense diaphragm:
Dusk hung like a backcloth
¹⁰ That shook where a swan swam,
Tremulous as a hawk
Hanging deadly, calm.

A vacuum of need
Collapsed each hunting heart
¹⁵ But tremulously we held
As hawk and prey apart,
Preserved classic decorum,
Deployed our talk with art.

Our Juvenilia
²⁰ Had taught us both to wait,
Not to publish feeling
And regret it all too late -
Mushroom loves already
Had puffed and burst in hate.

²⁵ So, chary and excited,
As a thrush linked on a hawk,
We thrilled to the March twilight
With nervous childish talk:
Still waters running deep
³⁰ Along the embankment walk.

Like many of Heaney's poems, "Twice Shy" deals with disillusionment, specifically that of a young couple who have had unsavory romantic experiences in the past. However, the poem puts a distinctly more positive spin on the theme than some of his other works, as it is set after the period of disillusionment, instead of describing the loss of innocence. Rather than being bitter for their experiences, the characters seem more wise and display a hesitant yet hopeful outlook. I enjoyed this poem because of its vivid, specific details, like the mention of her scarf in the beginning, and because it seemed to tell a complex story in a misleadingly small and simple poem.

Literary Devices

1. Allusion: In the title, Heaney alludes to a well known saying, "Once bitten, twice shy", which illuminates the essential message of the poem; the lovers have previously been hurt, which is why both are more cautious and wary this time around.

2. Rhyme: Each stanza of this poem follows a similar rhyme scheme, in which the second, fourth, and final lines rhyme. For instance, in the first stanza, there is "walk" (2), "talk" (4), and "walk" (6). This gives the poem a distinct rhythm.

3. Conceit: Heaney attaches a deeper meaning to the characters' relationship by repeatedly referring to them as "hawk and prey" (16), and describing them as "chary and excited / As thrush linked on a hawk" (25-26) or "tremulous as a hawk" (11). This seems like an unlikely comparison to make to lovers, but like the title, it reinforces the mood of wariness and caution; neither is sure if the other is the hawk, and whether they are meant to be the prey.

4. Metaphor: I thought an interesting metaphor in this poem was established in the fourth stanza, where the speaker states "Our Juvenilia / Had taught us both to wait" (19-20). Looking up the word, I found that "juvenilia" refers to an authors early works. The following "Not to publish feeling / And regret it all too late -" (21-22) re-emphasizes this with the verb "publish". This seemed especially meaningful given Heaney's own experience as a published author, and it made me wonder if, given his lengthy career, he had experienced any regret over his earliest works because they might reflect views he has since outgrown.

Death of a Naturalist

"Death of a Naturalist" by Seamus Heaney

All year the flax-dam festered in the heart
Of the townland; green and heavy headed
Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.
Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.
⁵ Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
¹⁰ In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring
I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied
Specks to range on window-sills at home,
On shelves at school, and wait and watch until
The fattening dots burst into nimble-
¹⁵ Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how
The daddy frog was called a bullfrog
And how he croaked and how the mammy frog
Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was
Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too
²⁰ For they were yellow in the sun and brown
In rain.
Then one hot day when fields were rank
With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs
Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges
²⁵ To a coarse croaking that I had not heard
Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.
Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cocked
On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:
The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat
³⁰ Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.
I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings
Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew
That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.

I thought it would be interesting to begin with the title poem of Heaney’s first poetry publication. In this poem, Heaney takes a simple, earthy subject of nature and adds an ominous twist to it. The title itself sets the tone, which is then built up by the vivid imagery and seemingly mundane observations, which eventually coalesce to gruesomely foretell the predicted death. Reading this poem, I was drawn in by the descriptive language of setting, which is strong enough to inspire a sense of repulsion in the reader of the graphically described frogspawn and nightmarish surroundings.

Literary devices:

1. Image: Heaney uses vivid image throughout the poem to convey a sense of foreboding mood. "Sweltered in the punishing sun" (4), "the warm thick slobber / Of frogspawn" (8-9), and "clotted water / In the shade of the banks" (9-10) are all violently unpleasant and vaguely threatening images. This choice of scenes to portray marks the tone of the poem, distinguishing it from a typical appreciation of nature and giving it a darker, uglier undertone.

2. Onomatopoeia: The use of onomatopoeia, such as in "gargled" (5), "slap" (29), and "pop" (29), serves to place the reader directly in the setting. Their unappealing connotations reinforce the pervading repugnant mood.

3. Personification: The speaker attaches human intentions and emotions to animal subjects in the poem, saying "The great slime kings / Were gathered there for vengeance" (31-32). By giving the frogs human characteristics, he makes them capable of evil, reinforcing the speaker's perception of nature as sinister and malevolent.

Biography and Background

Seamus Heaney was born in 1939 in Northern Ireland. He has been a resident of Dublin since 1976. His Irish upbringing as a Catholic in Protestant Northern Ireland had powerful impact on his work. His poems are grounded in actual detail and observation. As a poet, he has achieved significant prestige, as well as a reputation for work that is highly rated by the academic reader and popular with the public. His many awards include the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, the Whitbread prize (twice), and the 1968 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He began to be noticed as a poet in the 1960s, with “Death of a Naturalist”, his initial collection of poems. Since then he has published hundreds more, including “Open Ground” (1999), which was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He has also contributed works of criticism, drama, and translation.

For more information, visit

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/211

http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/heaney/biography.php

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1995/heaney-bio.html

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/seamus-heaney