Digging Seamus Heaney was born on April 13, 1939, on a farm in Essay ex

Digging Seamus Heaney was innate(p) on April 13, 1939, on a farm in Castledawson, County Derry, NorthernDiggingSeamus Heaney was born on April 13, 1939, on a farm in Castledawson,County Derry, Northern Ireland, the eldest of eight children. In 1963,he began teaching at St. Josephs College in Belfast.The first song Ill be looking at is cut intoging it was written in1966.The poem consists of 9 stanzas that vary between two lines and fivelines in length. there is no pattern to the stanzas, perhaps toreflect the idea that there is no pattern or predictability to ourmemories.In the poem there is quite a rendering in the language e.g. the titleis blunt. It is only when we scram read the poem carefully that werealise that all three generation are involved in digging hisgrandfather dug turf, his father dug up potatoes, Heaney is digging uphis memories and his past.There is quite a lot of words ending in ing. Digging Raspingand Slicing this gives the poem a feel of action like your actua llythere. It gives the reader the effect of being there seeing it comprehendit smelling it almost touching it. It gives the poem a certain flow,the poem doesnt start and stop it flows from one stanza to another.The poem begins in the present distort as Heaney describes seeing hiselderly father straining among the flowerbeds, then goes into the pasttense when he remembers his father and grandfather at work. The lasttwo stanzas go through to the present, when Heaney realises that his workis to write. The final line, however, is in the future tense, toemphasise Heaneys determination Ill dig.He then describes his father and his grandfather as they work, hedescribes to us their movements and... ...e. It repeatsthe opening lines Between my finger and my thumb The squat penrests. Yet the gun image is replaced by Ill dig with it. His penbecomes a metaphorical spade. This suggests that his pen is his tool, scantily as the spades were tools for his father and grandfather. It alsosuggests that Heaney wants to go back to his roots to dig into hispast through his writing.There is a lot of repetition in the poem, the words dig anddigging are used. This shows the importance of digging, for peat andpotatoes, it also show how it is part of his families heritage and hasbeen going or generations.A few lines near the beginning of the poem have fairly conventionalrhymes thumb/gun, sound/ground/down thereafter the poem is unrhymed,though there are repeated sounds such as the repeat ing sounds innicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods