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

Digging Seamus Heaney was born 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 compassging it was written in1966.The meter consists of 9 stanzas that vary between two lines and fivelines in length. on that point 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 variation in the language e.g. the titleis blunt. It is only when we have rent the poem c befully that werealise that all three generation be involved in giveging hisgrandfather withdraw turf, his father dug up potatoes, Heaney is digging uphis memories and his past.There is quite a sess of words ending in ing. Digging Raspingand Slicing this gives the poem a feel of action lik e your actuallythere. It gives the reader the solvent of being there seeing it hearingit smelling it almost spot it. It gives the poem a certain flow,the poem doesnt start and depart it flows from one stanza to another.The poem begins in the present tense as Heaney describes seeing hiselderly father straining among the flowerbeds, then goes into the pasttense when he remembers his father and grandfather at expire. The lasttwo stanzas return 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 o create verballying lines Between my finger and my thumb The squat penrests. Yet the wedge image is replaced by Ill dig with it. His penbecomes a metaphorical spade. This suggests that his pen is his tool,just 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 portrays 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 skilful the beginning of the poem have fairly conventionalrhymes thumb/gun, snuff it/ground/down thereafter the poem is unrhymed,though there are repeated sounds such as the echoing ing sounds innicking and slicing neatly, raise sods