Seamus Heaney: Digging

... Seamus Heaney: Digging On the surface level of this poem, Heaney is writing about his life on the farm and describing the scene where his father was digging potatoes. The title 'Digging' is ambiguous and vague. You have to read the poem carefully to realise that all three generations are involved in digging. Heaney's grandfather digs turf, his father digs potatoes, and Heaney himself is digging up memories with his pen. The poem has a powerful opening similie. "The squat pen rests', snug as a gun". It shows how perfectly the pen fits in his hand, and also how powerful the pen is to him, like how a gun is powerful to man. Also it is suggesting that the pen is like a weapon for writing. Enjambment is used between the second and third stanza. He uses it to indicate the shift in time back into the past. It was clear that Heaney's father was

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