Heaney’s Poem, “Digging”

I choose Heaney’s poem, “Digging” for this week’s discussion work. After reading the poem times and times again, I think many words in “Digging” are symbolic. Between the first and second line in the poetry, Heaney writes, “Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.” From my point of view, Heaney tries to open this poem with the first image, the tool. In order to do that, he uses simile to compare the pen to a gun, which generally could make readers like me think that the pen is Heaney’s mighty but very peaceful weapon. Then it comes to the second tool in the poem, the spade. As Heaney wrote in the fourth and fifth line in the poem, “ When the spade sinks into gravelly ground: / My father, digging. I look down.” Obviously, the spade is Heaney’s father’s tool for gardening. More importantly, the very sound of the spade sinking into the ground just reminds Heaney of watching his father planting and harvesting potatoes, as he keeps writing about how his father works at the potato fields. All of a sudden, Heaney changes the tone in the fifteenth line of the poem and writes, “ By God, the old man could handle a spade. / Just like his old man.” I think Heaney uses the spade as a metaphor, trying to inform readers that his grandfather is good at gigging as well. However, on the other hands, it is seems that the spade also a strong connection between the men in Heaney’s family. But my thoughts have changed after reading the last four lines of the poem, “ 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.” This is definitely the “however” moment in the poem. I then eventually understand the reasons why Heaney uses the main parts to inform readers about how his father and grandfather are experts at digging. Although, Heaney doesn't follow his father and grandfather’s path as a digger, he still works hard using his “pen” as the tool.

After analyzing the symbols in the poem, the...