Digging

Being responsible refers to our ability to make decisions that serve our own interests and the interests of others. We first need to be responsible for ourselves before we can be responsible for others. In learning to be more responsible it is important that we know our limitations. It is also important to remember that we are not responsible for things that are out of our control, for example, how well a person can farm or how not so well. In this poem Heaney is exploring his ancestry and the roots from where he was brought up. He expresses the ideas of his constant regret that he is no longer able to follow his ancestor’s occupation as potato farmers and reflects back on the glorious days when his father and grandfather were in their prime.
In the first stanza of Digging Heaney introduces his pen. He’s saying that he is happy to be holding a pen, “It rests; snug as a gun” The quote “snug as a gun” gives the impression that the pen fits naturally in his hand. This is also a simile. (Remember similes compare things using like or as) Through that last phrase Heaney expresses his happiness in holding a pen and his comfort and contentment. Heaney compares his father’s and his grandfather’s digging into the ground to his writing and development of his poetry. Heaney’s father and grandfather use their shovels to work with the land, while Heaney uses his poem to work on his ideas to write poetry.
The second and third stanza’s are written in present day tense and switches to past tense in the last two lines. He is writing about what he sees just outside his window. Heaney’s is witnessing his “father, digging” through flowerbeds. “His straining rump among the flowerbeds,” obviously Heaney father is experiencing some hardship.
Heaney plays with the language throughout his poem by using images that appeal to our senses like sounds, sight, touch and smell. Such as ’rasping’ and ’gravelly’, this is images of the act of digging. ’Snug as a gun’ is also a paradox, it refers to how he picks up the pen and gently rests it in his hand, waiting to write. It is creating the beginning of the memories being told by the poet. Focuses our attention to the fact that this is set in present time.
In the last stanza, last line; ’ I’ll dig with it.’ The message to the reader to be skilled in what we do, and not try to be someone were not. Heaney is becoming emotional, and thinks about that the times when he was little and sometimes helped his grandfather out in the fields, this were good times. He shows great respect for them, but knows he can never be like them.