Delving: An Explication of Seamus Heaney’s “Digging”

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Recommended: Industrialization of Ireland

Heaney grew up at a time in Irish history when there was controversy as to whether young men should work in rising industry, gain their education, serve in the military or stay with their familiar family farm. Heaney very obviously chose to gain an education as he won a scholarship to attend a Catholic boarding school when he was twelve years old; he then went on to go to college where he embraced knowledge (Seamus Heaney - Biographical). In “Digging,” Heaney uses images he gained as he viewed his father and grandfather to portray qualities applied in work which he plans to carry from older generations of work to apply in his own work as a writer. For example, he uses symbols such as a spade both his father and grandfather used that interconnects with his pen of power, or the pen he uses to write poems, to emphasize the strength, or the spade, his knowledge provides in his poetry as it opens to the public. Heaney has written explicitly in his poem, “Digging,” to illustrate his purpose of reassuring himself that he is measuring up to his proud heritage as he publishes his first book of poetry to the public view with his pen of power through imagery of digging.
Before his debut book of poetry which contained “Digging” was published, Heaney had grown up experiencing the industrial revolution firsthand when he moved from his family farm to a Catholic boarding school in Derry. In this move, he went from living in a rural country to an urban city where he was surrounded with industrial outlooks on society. Thus, he gained a greater understanding of subjects such as writing which benefitted him in the way that he became an educated poet. Yet, Heaney admits in a lecture to a classroom full of students that he did struggle with poetry a...

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...troduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Comp. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Custom Edition for Eastern Arizona College ed. New York: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2010. 616-17. Print.
Heaney, Seamus J. "Feeling Into Words." Lecture. Oct. 1974. Thepdfportal.com. Thepdfportal.com. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
Moore, Andrew. "Heaney - Poems." Heaney - Poems. Andrew Moore, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. .
"Seamus Heaney." Poetry for Students. Vol. 5. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1999. 69-77. Print.
"Seamus Heaney - Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013. Web. 3 Mar 2014.
"Work and Poverty." - Children and Poverty, Early Industrial Society, Child Labor in Industrial Society, Family Economies. The Gale Group, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

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