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CRITICAL COMMENTARY The poem "Digging" is about a writer struggling with the thought that his occupation does not measure up to the job that his father and grandfather have and he feels, since his grandfather is not above that kind of hard labor, that he acts as though he is regretful that he is not continuing the family tradition. Throughout the poem, Heaney uses metaphors and similes to portray how the writers pen measures up to the spade that the father and grandfather use. At the end of the poem, all of these metaphors and similes bring the writer to the conclusion that, in his own way, he is digging like his elder family members but in a different style; he digs into the paper with a pen while his father and grandfather dig into dirt with a spade.
"Digging" 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.
works cited
SEAMUS HEANEY 1939 - PRESENT
5 FACTS 1. Heaney recieved his Literary Doctorate from Bates College in 1986. 2. Heaney was elected professor of poetry at the University of Oxford in 1989. 3. Heaney joined the expanded Board of Directors of the Field Day Theatre Company in 1981. 4. In 1972, Heaney he moved back to Dublin from Belfast and becoame a teacher at Carysfort College. 5. Heaney was appointed to the Arts Council of the Republic of Ireland in 1974.
