Traditional and Intellectual Methods of Digging

Danielle Brosseau
English 181
Professor Kappeler
October 7th, 2013
Traditional and Intellectual Methods of Digging To break away from a tradition is often a means of upholding it. This is the case in “Digging,” a poem written by Irish poet and playwright Seamus Heaney. Through alliteration that subtly alters tone, changes in tense that gently signify a change from real time to memory, imagery that appeals to all the senses, a free form that allows for the manipulation of stanzas, and the tying together of ideas through repetition, Heaney effectively communicates the importance to and influence of tradition on the speaker of the poem. Clearly, the speaker is a man motivated by the wish to maintain the traditional value of hard work that his ancestors displayed and which he admired as a child through the use of his own tool: a pen. The poem begins with a man, the speaker, preparing to write when he hears his father digging with a spade among the flowerbeds below his window. The sound of the spade reminds him of the digging his father had done when he was younger, and, through a change to the preterite from the present tense, Heaney makes a transition to the memories of the speaker. While still in the present tense, the speaker remarks, “My father, digging. I look down/ Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds/ Bends low” (5-7). The father of the speaker, although older than in the recollections recorded later in the poem, is undoubtedly working hard in the garden; this is made obvious by the use of the word “straining” in line six. After the change in tense, the speaker describes his father as a younger man, “Stooping in rhythm through potato drills/ Where he was digging” (8-9). The act of rising and bending in the pattern appropriate to digging the holes for the potatoes emphasizes that the job is no doubt laborious work. In that same stanza, the spade is described as making a “clean rasping sound” (3), as it would if a man were digging with learned skills such as precision and consistency. It is through this transition to the past from the current that the idea that working hard is a value, a tradition of the family throughout the generations, is established. If the son, the speaker of the poem, did not so greatly admire the work ethic, his mind would not wander so when his father dug in the garden. In addition to using the changing tense of the poem as a statement of time, Heaney incorporates alliteration in a manner that gives the digging the speaker describes a mechanical feel. The alliteration is first seen in the thought enjambed throughout lines twelve, thirteen, and fourteen: “He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep/ To scatter new potatoes that we picked/ Loving their cool hardness in our hands.” Tall tops, buried the bright, potatoes that we picked, and hardness in our hands are clear examples of alliteration, and this deliberate repetition of initial consonant sounds gives the stanza a routine feel. In addition to the alliteration presented here, there is friction within the adjectives and nouns used in the description. One does not usually think of an edge as bright, nor does one usually associate temperature with hardness; however, the descriptions work well within the poem. The sunlight that shines on the edge of a metal shovel would certainly make it seem bright, and the cool temperature of a potato fresh from the ground may add to it a feeling of solidity. Most important to note, though, is that cold, edges, and hardness are all associated with mechanics, and the incorporation of the words in a poem constructed of such careful diction and syntax implies that the digging was a learned skill that was applied over and over again. This implied repetition suggests that the speaker’s ancestors worked hard at the jobs they took on. The imagery used in the poem adds to the theory of the speaker’s hard-working ancestry and its development, as the speaker describes his father and his grandfather in a way that emphasizes the effort and technique they put into their harvests. In introducing his grandfather, the speaker makes a claim as to his work: “My grandfather cut more turf in a day/ Than any other man on Toner’s bog” (17-18). This first description gives the reader a generous amount of information: the grandfather harvested peat from Toner’s bog; the grandfather was practiced in what he did, and the grandfather had skills that surpassed those of the other workmen. It is interesting to note that the grandfather was not harvesting potatoes as his son did, nor was he planting flowers as his son did in old age; he worked hard and he dug, but his intention when digging was different.. Lines 19-24 also support the idea that the grandfather had worked hard: “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, going down and down/ For the good turf. Digging.” After only a short break, the grandfather continue to dig quickly but carefully. This technique, along with another piece of evidence regarding hard work, is also noted in lines 10-11: “The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft/ Against the inside knee was levered firmly.” The grandfather steps on the spade or blade, which helps push it deeper into the ground and keeps him balanced, with his “coarse” boot; coarse implies that the boot is a work boot, probably old and worn. Not only does the grandfather exhibit skill, but his boots are worn enough that the speaker has taken notice, suggesting that he has worked hard and for some extended period of time. So far the focus has been set on rhetorical devices used within the text; however, Heaney also uses form, free verse, to effectively set apart the most important set of lines in the poem. Up until this point, there has been something off about the speaker here: his admiration of his father and grandfather make it seem as though he would follow in their footsteps, as though he would be digging in the field alongside one or both of them, but he does not. In lines 25-28, the speaker makes a complete turn in terms of subject matter, looking at himself instead of his relatives: “The cold smell of potato mould, 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.” The last line of the stanza, line 28, claims that even though the speaker admires his family tradition of hard work, he will not be following his father and grandfather with a spade. Having made the speaker transition from remembering his ancestors to speaking about himself, Heaney uses the repetition of the first two lines (from the first stanza) to bring the idea presented in the poem full-circle. The first two lines introduced the tool the speaker would use: “Between my giner and my thumb/ The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.” The tool of the speaker, what he holds throughout the narrative, is simply a pen; it is not the blade that his father or grandfather used for harvesting peat or potatoes, and it is not the spade that his father is using in the flowerbeds below his window. The tool that the speaker wishes to use is something entirely different, and this brings into question the traditional nature of his work. On top of the doubt of tradition, the speaker also incorporates a startling simile: “The squat pen rests; snug as a gun” (2). In the hand of the speaker, the pen feels like a gun, and the connotations of the adjective and noun clash. “Snug” brings forward a feeling of comfort, security; “gun” brings forth thoughts of violence and feelings of unrest. This suggests that the speaker, though seated comfortably in his home, will be writing about something controversial, something that may enlighten but upset. The poem is not brought full-circle, however, until Heaney repeats the first two lines from the first stanza in the final stanza of the poem. He writes: “Between my finger and my thumb/ The squat pen rests./ I’ll dig with it” (29-31). The first and second lines presented nearly the same, the speaker reminds the reader that he is, in fact, using a pen instead of a spade or blade, although he does not repeat the comparison to the gun. Leaving out the second tool gives the speaker’s action, writing, a more contemplative feel, as opposed to the feelings of unrest brought about by the mention of the gun. To replace the mention of the gun, Heaney incorporates his title and links his action to the idea of his family traditions. Line 31, which is a thought by itself, not enjambed through the other lines, reads “I’ll dig with it.” The ending thought, line 31 explains the speaker’s intent to follow tradition through changing tradition. Throughout the entire poem, the speaker expresses great admiration for the hard work of his grandfather and father, like in lines 15-16 when he says “By God, the old man could handle a spade./ Just like his old man.” This exclamation expresses how impressive the work of his father and grandfather was to him, while also reminding the reader that there has been a progression: his grandfather used a blade to harvest peat before his father used a spade to harvest potatoes and plant flowers. The tradition that the speaker admires clearly can not be what is being dug for, as it constantly changes; the tradition that the speaker admires is the hard work, the act of unearthing or finding something worthwhile, and this is what he plans to do with his pen. Although the reader can not be certain of what the speaker intends to write, the reader can be sure that he will be digging for something, such as truth or knowledge, and this continues that tradition of hard work, albeit in a slightly different manner. As it has been explained, it is indubitable that the speaker of the poem is motivated by his wish to dig, to unearth or find something worthwhile, to maintain his family tradition of hard work, although he intends to do so with writing in lieu of physical labor. Throughout the entirety of “Digging,” written by Seamus Heaney, rhetorical devices like alliteration, tense change, imagery, repetition, and manipulation of form assist in presenting the idea of the poem: tradition, which was important to and admired by the speaker in the poem, can be carried on and changed, depending on the tradition itself. There are ways of digging, of bringing forward fresh ideas, without using a spade or blade.