Interpretation Of Seamus Heaney 's Digging

Seamus Heaney and Thomas Hardy both depict images of rural life as difficult and uncomfortable. In their poems ‘At a Potato Digging’ and ‘A Sheep Fair’ they describe different aspects of rural life; these were elements of life that would have been familiar to the poets and ones that they would have experienced. In their poetry Heaney and Hardy

With virtually any kind of text, critical thinking is required to unveil the true meaning and purpose behind an artist’s work. Whether that text is a poem, novel or film, we as scholars must find evidence to support our claims of the current text. The text I shall be analyzing is the short film Dig, written and directed by Toby Halbrooks. The main story line of this film is of a young girl watching her father dig an unprecedented hole in their own backyard. To the untrained mind, he seems to just be digging for no apparent reason. However, that is not the case at all. The father digging the hole is a metaphor for him attempting to escape his problems shown through the daughter’s eyes. The evidence supplied throughout the film all point to how

Work is one of the many personal commitments we have in life that fulfill our passion and needs. “Digging” and “Warren Pryor” are both related to work, and how having a certain occupation should be personally fulfilling. In these poems, the author portrays two different points of view. Underlying the true intention, both poems reveal the strong admiration both leads had upon their parents and what kind of work they had done. Both Seamus Heany’s “Digging” and Aiden Nowlan’s “Warren Pryor” suggest that when an individual has close relationships, they are often prone to influences, and as a result may choose their occupation accordingly.

First element that Heaney uses is diction, it is simple but effective. Diction is word choice, or the style of speaking that a writer, speaker, or character uses. For instance at the end of the poem he says “Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests. / I’ll dig with it” (Heaney 29-31). The diction he uses is simple but it is effective in proving his point of view that he won’t dig with a shovel but instead he’ll use a pen.

In the poem “Postscript” by Seamus Heaney, the speaker describes an experience with a natural landscape in order to illustrate how experiences can evoke feelings that overwhelm us with their transcendent beauty and leave us speechless. Finding words for the beautiful, sublime, uplifting moments can be difficult when encountering such places, and even though the speaker leaves space for the ineffable, the poem makes the reader feel as though they have received a glimpse of something true, a valuable piece of advice about how to move through the world. This essay will therefore analyse the poem in order to discover and articulate how and why this poem advises the reader on how to create their own version of his unique fleeting experience.

Heaney uses onomatopoeia in the words ‘slap’ and ‘plop’ to create an image on the readers mind. This section also shows the punishment from offended nature for the boys arrogance – when he sees what nature is really like, he is terrified. This part of the poem is also very ambiguous – we see the horror of the plague of frogs, ‘obscene’ and gathered’ for ‘vengeance.’ – at least in the child’s mind.

conversation. It isn't like a poem at all. It says "By god the old man

Imagery is a common form of technique used in poetry in which the author uses visualization to demonstrate a vivid scene for the readers. In the poem, “Digging”, he discusses his father’s aging figure and recreates the feeling of the passage of time by mentioning his grandfather digging in a similar fashion. When Heaney says, “Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds; Bends low, comes up twenty years away”, he is most likely referring to a past memory of his father, indicating he has passed away twenty years ago. Heaney vividly remembers his father digging, and compares his father’s digging to his own penmanship when he says at the beginning of the poem, “Between my finger and my thumb/ The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.”, and at the end of the poem when he says, “Between my

Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) was an Irish poet and playwright. His poem “Punishment” was first published in 1975 in a collection of poems called “North.” Heaney wrote this poem and collection of poems after discovering several bog bodies which dated back to the 1500s. The particular women he is describing in the poem, Windeby, is thought to have died of unnatural causes. Heaney compares the circumstances to that of the IRA against the British in Ulster. Heaney talks about the injustice and brutality of the crimes committed to

A Comparison of Death of a Naturalist and Digging by Seamus Heaney The poems 'Death of a Naturalist' and 'Digging' have many similarities, and contrasts. Some of the reoccurring themes in the two poems include memories of childhood and changes in the life of the writer. There are contrasts too, in 'Death of a Naturalist'; the writer is concentrating on himself and his own experiences in life, rather than the experiences of others. In 'Digging', the opposite is true, as the writer concentrates mainly on the events in other people's lives, namely his father and grandfather.

His youth was an important time in his life and a common topic of his many poems. He reflects on how he would hear his father working in the fields, framing the potatoes with pride of his culture in the popular poem “Digging”. “He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep/ To scatter new potatoes that we picked/ Loving their cool hardness in our hands” (Heaney 12-14). His father was a strict man, but he was also a very influential aspect in Heaney’s life and taught him what is meant to be a hardworking man. Even after he has grown in age and his father has past he still has not lost hope and given up. Later in his life, he began teaching at a university. It was here that he developed a love for writing. He continued to write for the IRA, Irish Republican Army, during the war. His poems during this time are considered to be some of his greatest works. He continued to write until the end of his life, when he died in 2013 in his home country Ireland.

The use of imagery in both poems are used to describe an author’s use of vivid descriptions ("Purdue OWL: Literary Terms.") in order to create more depth in their work. Imagery in Digging can be found in the beginning of the poem, it is introduced by a simile - “The squat pen rests/; snug as a gun.” The pen Heaney has is being compared to a gun which represents his own kind of

As the speaker casually calls their parents, a setting of calm expectations is established. While greeting the speaker, the mother’s decision to “run out and get” (1) the father highlights the lack of urgency that is present. The mother is calm and fetches the father in an expected and relaxed fashion, further establishing the calm expectations of the ongoing call. The mother additionally states that “the weather here’s so good” (2). Heaney’s use of the word “good” reflects the setting of the mother and father’s home; the atmosphere of where they live is pleasant and unperturbed. The “weather” serves as a projection of the father’s own state, implying that the father is in good health and that death is not yet looming over him. The last spoken words in the poem reveal that the father was conducting “a bit of weeding” (3). The word “weeding” highlights the capability of the

At the beginning of the poem, Heaney packs the poem with organic imagery. The similes mentioned above that compare the body to tree bark, basalt rocks, swan feet, swamp roots, and mussels all aid in producing a striking sense of organic imagery. In addition, Heaney mentions that the bog body "lies on a pillow of turf" (2-3), to convey nature as his final resting place. The reference to the bog body's deathbed also creates an eerie mood that never leaves.

Seamus Heaney uniquely constructed his poem “The Forge” to tell a story of an inspired outcast scrutinizing a man while he conducts true art. This poem is not only about an outsider fantasizing about the unknown, but also about a blacksmith’s every move and more. The audience is left questioning “who is this mysterious blacksmith?” and “who even is this being of inspiration?” After profound research was done, it was uncovered that the narrator is actually Heaney, and the blacksmith is his dexterous neighbor, Barney Devlin. Heaney’s definitive word choice was significantly influenced by his young, budding mindset as a child, leading him to speak so strongly about someone that he hardly even knew.