"Digging" Analysis

  The immediate reaction I got from the poem when I first read it was a sense of vivid imagery when reviewing the text. Heaney does a good job of painting a clear picture of what he saw while growing up. For instance, there is a moment where he mentions "The cold smell of potato mold the squelch and slap of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge(...)" and it is here where I can almost see perfectly what young Seamus Heaney saw when he looked out that window. The texture, sounds, and even smell are all on full display for the reader to see when Heaney uses these choice words for description. 

The second thing I found interesting during this analysis was the inclusion of Heaney himself within the poem. I feel like this was a decision made to show how different he is compared to his father and his grandfather. While they both do similar work of toiling on the turf, Heaney reminds the reader that his holding the pen is a stark contrast to the generations that came before him, and yet he also writes his form of work with an interesting amount of force. "The squat pen rests. I'll dig with it." This almost suggests that his form of work is hard in his own way.