“Digging” by Seamus Heaney

Skill Focus
Levels of Thinking
Remember Understand Apply Analyze Create
Close Reading Grammar Composition
Reading Strategies Parts of Speech Types (modes)
Determining Main Idea Phrases Expository
Generalization Absolute analytical
Inference Clauses The Process of Composition
Paraphrase Independent Prewriting
Summary Sentences generation of ideas
Literary Elements Structure organization of ideas
Character compound Structural Elements
motivation Sentence Variety Body
Detail Sentence Beginnings incorporation of quotes
Diction Syntax Techniques topic sentence
connotation Omission use of commentary
denotation Repetition use of evidence
vocabulary Rhetorical Fragment
Imagery Analysis of a Text
Mood Meaning and Effect related to parts
Point of View of speech, phrases, clauses,
person sentences, and syntax
perspective
Setting
Style
Theme
Tone
tone determined through
diction, imagery, detail,
point of view, and syntax
multiple tones
vocabulary associated with
tone
Figures of Speech
Metaphor
Simile
Sound Devices
Alliteration
Consonance
Onomatopoeia
Rhyme
Literary Techniques
Characterization
direct
indirect
Motif
Symbolism
Literary Forms
Verse

Materials and Resources

• “Digging” by Seamus Heaney, included
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 Teacher Overview—“Digging”

Lesson Introduction
This lesson guides students through an analysis of a contemporary poem that explores the
relationship between the speaker and his father and grandfather. Close reading activities focus on
connotative diction, imagery, figurative language, syntax, and sound devices that help students
discern the character of the speaker and his own recognition of the role he plays in perpetuating
his family and cultural heritage. Students also analyze the writer’s use of a controlling motif to
unlock meaning in the poem. The lesson culminates with a writing activity in which students
discuss the speaker’s attitudes toward his father and grandfather.

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 “Digging”
By Seamus Heaney

Read carefully the poem “Digging” and answer the questions that follow.

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound

When the spade sinks into gravelly ground.
My father, digging. I look down (5)

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds

Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stopping in rhythm through potato drills 1
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug 2 , the shaft (10)

Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade. (15)

Just like his old man.

My grandfather cut more turf 3 in a day

Than any other man on Toner’s bog 4 .
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up (20)
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.

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap (25)
Of soggy peat 5 , the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

1
Potato drills: furrowed rows of potato plants.
2
Lug: the top projection of the blade on a spade.
3
Turf: a block of peat to be burned as fuel.
4
Bog: a marsh; an area of wet, spongy ground.
5
Peat: partially decayed, highly combustible, dry plant material usually formed in swamps.

“Digging” from POEMS 1965–1975 by Seamus Heaney. Copyright © 1980 by Seamus Heaney. Permission Pending.
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 Student Activity—“Digging”

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests. (30)
I’ll dig with it.

Activity One: Summary

In the space below, write a brief summary (three to five sentences) of what this poem is about.

Activity Two: Close Reading

1. Using a slash mark (/), indicate the end of each sentence in the poem. How many sentences
are there?

2. Describe the point of view in this poem and justify your answer, giving evidence from the
poem.

3. Write one or two good sentences to describe the speaker in the poem, referring to age, gender,
occupation, etc.

4. What other specific people does the speaker mention?

5. What is the simile the speaker uses in lines 1–2?

What two things are being compared?

In what way(s) are these two things similar?

6. Define the word “squat.”

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 Student Activity—“Digging”

Why do you think the speaker uses this word to describe the pen?

A rhetorical fragment is a sentence fragment used deliberately for a persuasive purpose or

to create a desired effect.

7. In lines 3–4 the speaker uses a rhetorical fragment: “Under my window, a clean rasping
sound/When the spade sinks into gravelly ground.” What effect is created by the speaker’s
use of this fragment?

Write this fragment as a complete sentence:

Does the complete sentence achieve the same effect as the fragment? Explain your answer.

8. In line 5 the speaker uses another rhetorical fragment: “My father, digging.” Write this
fragment as a complete sentence:

Which is more effective—the fragment or the complete sentence? Explain your answer.

9. What literal scene does the speaker describe in lines 3–6?

10. Identify two different types of sound devices used in lines 3–5 and write the words that
create those sound devices.

How do these sound devices contribute to the description of this scene?

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 Student Activity—“Digging”

11. Is the action described in line 7 (“Bends low, comes up twenty years away”) literal or
figurative? Explain.

12. What literal scene does the speaker describe in lines 8–14?

13. What role does the speaker play in the scene described in lines 8–14?

How does this depiction of the speaker differ from the speaker you characterized in Question
3?

14. In lines 10–11, there are two independent clauses joined only with a comma. What kind of
word has the writer omitted?

Why do you think he might have chosen to join these two independent clauses in this way
instead of in a more traditional manner?

15. Who is “the old man” the speaker refers to in line 15?

16. In the chart below, list all of the main verbs (not participles) in stanzas 3 and 4. In
parentheses give the subject of each verb. The first one has been done for you.

present tense verbs past tense verbs

Stanza 3 bends, comes (rump)

Stanza 4

17. What do the tenses of the verbs in Stanzas 3–4 tell you about the action being described in
these two stanzas?

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 Student Activity—“Digging”

18. In the space below, write one complete sentence that describes the speaker’s attitude toward
his father, as revealed in lines 3–15. Then give at least two details from the poem to support
your statement.

19. Who is “his old man” to whom the speaker refers in line 16?

What is the speaker’s relationship to this man?

20. What transition occurs in lines 15–16?

21. What specific scene does the speaker describe in lines 17–24?

22. What role does the speaker play in the scene he describes in lines 17–24?

How does this depiction of the speaker differ from the speaker you characterized in Question
3?

23. In the space below, write one complete sentence that describes the speaker’s attitude toward
his grandfather, as revealed in lines 15–24. Then give at least two details from the poem to
support your statement.

24. Read carefully the sentence that comprises lines 25–27:

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.

Underline twice the main verb in this sentence. Is it present tense or past tense?

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 Student Activity—“Digging”

Based on the verb tense, how would you describe the transition that occurs in this sentence?

25. List below each of the compound subjects in this sentence and tell whether these subjects are
more closely related to the speaker’s father or to his grandfather or both:

26. What two meanings of the word “roots” seem implicit in line 27? Explain.

27. What does the speaker mean when he says that these images “awaken in my head”?

Symbolism is the use of any object, person, place, or action that has a meaning in itself while
standing for something larger than itself, such as a quality, attitude, belief, or value.

28. What tool or implement does the speaker associate with his father?

What tool or implement does the speaker associate with his grandfather?

29. Look carefully again at what the father and grandfather were digging. How do these things
represent some of the basic necessities of life?

30. Read carefully the sentence in line 28: But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

What is the rhetorical function of the word “But” at the beginning of this sentence?

31. Paraphrase this sentence:

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 Student Activity—“Digging”

32. What tool or implement does the speaker associate with himself?

33. How can the speaker “dig with” this tool?

34. How do these two different tools serve as symbols for the speaker and for the speaker’s
father and grandfather?

A motif is a pattern or strand of imagery or symbolism in a work of literature.

35. Notice that the title consists of only one word—“Digging.” Where is this word (or another
form of this word) repeated in the poem? For each instance, give the line number and tell
who is connected with the digging in that line.

36. Find at least three other words or phrases in the poem that also relate to the act of digging.
Give the line numbers where they occur.

37. How does this motif of digging unify the poem?

38. Why do you think the speaker repeats in lines 29–30 the words he used in lines 1–2?

39. Notice that the speaker’s descriptions of his father and his grandfather are “bookmarked” by
lines 1–2 and 29–30. How does this repetition relate to the cycle of life established in the
poem?

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 Student Activity—“Digging”

Activity Three: Determining Tone

1. In the space below, list several words that describe the speaker’s attitude toward his father
and his grandfather.

Circle the two words you think best describe this attitude.

2. Keeping in mind the motif of “digging” in this poem, fill in the chart below with examples of
diction, imagery, and figurative language that reveal the speaker’s attitude toward his father
and his grandfather. You must include at least four pieces of evidence and identify the device
used. Use quotation marks around quotes from the poem and cite line numbers. The
commentary explains, analyzes, etc. how or why the concrete device reveals the tone you
identified.

Device—Evidence (Lines from the Poem) Commentary

Tone words:
and

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 Student Activity—“Digging”

3. Examine the evidence you provided in the chart above. Now complete the following sentence
by filling in the blank with appropriate noun forms of the tone words you selected for
Question 1 and two types of concrete devices you used in your chart:

The speaker in “Digging” reveals his and

(attitude—noun) (attitude—noun)

toward his father and his grandfather through his use of and
(device)
.
(device)

4. Writing about the Poem: Write one complete paragraph in which you analyze how the poet
reveals his attitude toward his father and his grandfather. Use the sentence you wrote above as
your topic sentence, and use the evidence and commentary from your journal to complete
your paragraph. You may paraphrase or use direct quotations from the poem. Write at least
two sentences of commentary explaining how the evidence reveals the speaker’s attitude.

After you have finished your paragraph, use this checklist to evaluate it.

I included two or three pieces of evidence.

I incorporated the evidence into sentences with my own words.

I explained how the evidence reveals the speaker’s attitudes toward his father and his
grandfather.
I highlighted evidence and analysis in two different colors to be sure that there is more
analysis than evidence.

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