Digging

Digging

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.

Under my window a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade,
Just like his old man.

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.

The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
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.

Seamus Heaney was born in April 1939, the eldest nine children. His father owned and worked a small farm in County Derry in Northern Ireland. Heaney's mother came from a family from the modern world than with the traditional rural economy. Heaney left the farm life, when he attended St. Columb's College, Derry in 1957 to continue his studies. In 1961 Heaney graduated from Queen's University and became a teacher at St. Joseph's College of Education. In 1966 he became a lecturer at Queen University. At Queen University, Heaney's published his first book called, Eleven Poems in 1965 and later the poem “Digging” in 1966.
I love the poem “Digging,” because Heaney uses nature to depict his ancestor’s cultural background. To me this poem has two different meanings. To me the first meaning of this poem explains how he uses his pen as his instrument. The second meaning of the poem deals with Heaney family. Heaney uses this poem to describe his connection between his grandfather and father, while searching for his own identity through their cultural background. I love how Heaney uses a semantic structure when comparing writing poetry to digging on a farm. This to me is brilliant and shows a great example of how to play on words in a poem.