Seamus Heaney - Digging!

Recently I was devastated to hear that Seamus Heaney the brilliant Irish poet had past away. We are studying him at the moment not only cause his death is recent but also cause he is an amazing, powerful writer! Our teacher showed us a documentary made on him not too long ago. It was fascinating to learn about him. She also set us with this assignment, to pick a poem by him and write about our impressions. 

I choose the  poem Digging because I heard it in first year and thought it was so powerful and meaningful. I believe this poem is about Heaney having a different career than the men in his family tree. The poem shows a young Heaney looking up to his elders - in this case his father and grandfather. He says 'by God, the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man'. Here he is talking about how his grandfather and father worked in the fields cutting turf. 

This poem has such a strong sense of family like when he says 'But I've no spade to follow men like them' Here he is talking about how he can't ind interest or talent in what his ancestors had done, but he prefers to write poetry. In the poem he discusses the achievements of the men.

He also says 'between my finger and my thumb, the squat pen rests. I'll dig with it.' This to me is the most powerful line of the piece he knows he can't dig turf with a pen but he will make his father and grandfather proud with his poetry. 

That was my first impression of Seamus Heaneys' poem Digging.

The Man Himself