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    The Analysis of "Digging" by Seamus Heaney

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    The poem "Digging" by Seamus Heaney compares his occupation as a writer to that of his father and grandfather's lives as farmers. Heaney grew up on his father's farm, but chose a different path of becoming a writer rather than following the family tradition of farming. Though the jobs differ, with his father digging in the soil with a spade and Heaney digging with his pen, they both engage in an act of digging - his father with the land and Heaney with his imagination. The poem depicts his father and grandfather's skill in farming through descriptions of their techniques and strength in digging, while establishing Heaney's identity as a writer who will dig in his own way through the written word.

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    The Analysis of "Digging" by Seamus Heaney

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    AYE
    329 views3 pages
    The poem "Digging" by Seamus Heaney compares his occupation as a writer to that of his father and grandfather's lives as farmers. Heaney grew up on his father's farm, but chose a different path of becoming a writer rather than following the family tradition of farming. Though the jobs differ, with his father digging in the soil with a spade and Heaney digging with his pen, they both engage in an act of digging - his father with the land and Heaney with his imagination. The poem depicts his father and grandfather's skill in farming through descriptions of their techniques and strength in digging, while establishing Heaney's identity as a writer who will dig in his own way through the written word.

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    The poem "Digging" by Seamus Heaney compares his occupation as a writer to that of his father and grandfather's lives as farmers. Heaney grew up on his father's farm, but chose a different path of becoming a writer rather than following the family tradition of farming. Though the jobs differ, with his father digging in the soil with a spade and Heaney digging with his pen, they both engage in an act of digging - his father with the land and Heaney with his imagination. The poem depicts his father and grandfather's skill in farming through descriptions of their techniques and strength in digging, while establishing Heaney's identity as a writer who will dig in his own way through the written word.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    329 views3 pages

    The Analysis of "Digging" by Seamus Heaney

    Uploaded by

    AYE
    The poem "Digging" by Seamus Heaney compares his occupation as a writer to that of his father and grandfather's lives as farmers. Heaney grew up on his father's farm, but chose a different path of becoming a writer rather than following the family tradition of farming. Though the jobs differ, with his father digging in the soil with a spade and Heaney digging with his pen, they both engage in an act of digging - his father with the land and Heaney with his imagination. The poem depicts his father and grandfather's skill in farming through descriptions of their techniques and strength in digging, while establishing Heaney's identity as a writer who will dig in his own way through the written word.

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    The Analysis of “Digging” by Seamus Heaney

    INTRODUCTION

    A. Background of the Study


    Digging by Seamus Heaney rich with imageries. The writer interested in this
    poem because it tells about the difference between the generation and it still tries to find a
    similar line within it. This poem tells about the speaker who doesn’t want to follow his father
    and grandfather steps but he wants to pursue his passion as a writer.
    The writer will use biographical approach which includes the study regarding
    with the poet background and the situation around his life at the time this poem was created.

    Digging
    Seamus Heaney

    Between my finger and my thumb


    The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.

    Under my window a clean rasping sound


    When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
    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.

    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.

    By God, the old man could handle a spade,


    Just like his old man.

    My grandfather could cut more turf in a day


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

    The cold smell of potato mold, 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
    The squat pen rests.
    I'll dig with it.

    - from Death of a Naturalist (1966)-

    B. Problem Formulation
    1. What issue does the poet want to tell?
    2. How does the background of the poet influence the poem?

    ANALYSIS

    A. What issue does the poet want to tell?


    This poem wants to tell about the comparison between digging with spade and
    digging with pen. The speaker in this poem is a writer which comes from a family who live
    as a farmer.
    The first stanza tells that the speaker use his pen as a gun or weapon. In the
    second stanza described the speaker’s position where he is in the house and he look down
    outside the window where his father works digging the potatoes. This description means that
    the speaker position is higher than his father, he writes and his father doing farmer work.
    The third and fourth stanzas tell about how his father is very skillful in digging
    the potatoes. The speaker describes what is needed to be done to plant potatoes. “Bends low,
    comes up twenty years away” this lines means that this skill comes up not easy but it gained
    by long time experience. “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”. These lines
    described how to plant new potatoes. It’s not something that can to be done randomly, but it
    needs skill. “Loving their cool hardness in our hands”. This last line in fourth stanza gives
    clue that his father especially loves doing his job, he is happy as he plants the new potatoes.
    The fifth stanza tells that the first “old man” means his father can handle spade
    like “his old man” means his grandfather. It means that the job to be a digger already runs in
    the family from generation to generation. His grandfather is a farmer, his father also becomes
    a farmer and actually the speaker also expected to become a farmer too just like other people
    in the family.
    The sixth stanza focused about his grandfather who was a great digger just like
    his father. “My grandfather could cut more turf in a day. Than any other man on Toner's
    bog.” means that his grandfather is hard worker and skillful in doing his job. He can gain or
    harvest more in a day comparing to others in their place. It continues with the explanation
    about the speaker memory regarding with his grandfather determination towards his job.
    Once the speaker bring him milk to the field for his grandfather. His father drank the milk
    and then goes back to his job. After regaining more strength from the milk that he drank, his
    grandfather working harder. “Over his shoulder, digging down and down. For the good turf.
    Digging.”
    The seventh stanza tells that although in his entire life, the speaker already
    familiar with the farm job and this tradition running through his vein but he won’t follow his
    father and grandfather steps to become a farmer who ding the soil with the spade. The last
    stanza the speaker repeat that he is holding the pen now and he’ll use pen as a weapon to do
    his job as a writer, just like his father use spade to dig the soil.
    B. How does the background of the poet influence the poem?
    Seamus Heaney was born near Castledawson, County Derry, and grew up on
    his father's cattle farm. He was the eldest in a Catholic family of nine children. Heaney grew
    up as a country boy and looking up to his father who is a farmer.
    This poem tells about the generation comparison between Heaney and his
    father. His father is a traditional farmer and Heaney didn’t want to follow his father steps to
    be a farmer but he desire to pursue knowledge and teaching. As a person who is literate and
    graduate from university. Heaney has a higher position in the society comparing to his father
    who is jus a farmer.
    In here Heaney try to draw a line between his job as a writer and his father job
    as a farmer. Its two kinds of different job. The writer sometimes works inside and sitting in
    one place to find inspiration, it’s not rough job. But it’s very different for the farmer who
    must work under the sun and use his spade to break the ground; it’s a hard work and need a
    lot of energy. But although it’s different, it’s still the same. They are a digger. The writer dig
    with his pen and a farmer dig with his spade. The farmer digs his soil and the writer soil is his
    imagination.

    CONCLUSION
    The poem Digging by Seamus Heaney tells about the difference and
    similarities between a farmer and a writer. Heaney is a great writer who comes from the
    family who lives from farming. He was grown up in farming area. But because he is
    educated, he pursues a different path from his father and his grandfather who works in farm
    from generations. Heaney wants to emphasize that although the two jobs are very different
    but both of their activities are digging. His father is digging with his spade and Heaney is
    digging with his pen as a writer.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    “Seamus Heaney” Nobelprize.org. 19 Nov 2009.


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

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