“Digging” Introduction

• Read the full text of “Digging”

“Digging” Summary

“Digging” Themes

• 

  Labor and Craft

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2
  • Lines 6-9
  • Lines 10-14
  • Lines 15-16
  • Lines 17-24
  • Line 28
  • Lines 29-31
• 

  Family and Tradition

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 3-31

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Digging”

• Lines 1-2

  Between my finger ...
  ... as a gun.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-5

  Under my window, ...
  ... I look down

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-9

  Till his straining ...
  ... he was digging.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 10-14

  The coarse boot ...
  ... in our hands.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 15-18

  By God, the ...
  ... on Toner’s bog.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 19-24

  Once I carried ...
  ... good turf. Digging.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-28

  The cold smell ...
  ... men like them.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 29-31

  Between my finger ...
  ... dig with it.

  

  

  

  

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“Digging” Symbols

• 

  Handheld tools

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “pen,” “gun”
  • Line 15: “spade”
  • Line 30: “pen”

“Digging” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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  Where alliteration appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “my,” “my”
  • Line 2: “squat,” “snug”
  • Line 3: “sound”
  • Line 4: “spade sinks”
  • Line 5: “digging,” “down”
  • Line 8: “drills”
  • Line 9: “digging”
  • Line 12: “tall tops,” “buried the bright”
  • Line 13: “potatoes,” “picked”
  • Line 14: “hardness,” “hands”
  • Line 22: “slicing,” “sods”
  • Line 23: “down and down”
  • Line 24: “Digging”
  • Line 25: “smell”
  • Lines 25-26: “squelch and slap / Of soggy”
  • Line 26: “curt cuts”
  • Line 28: “spade”
  • Line 29: “my,” “my”

• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where assonance appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “my,” “my thumb”
  • Line 2: “pen rests,” “snug as a gun”
  • Line 3: “sound”
  • Line 4: “sinks into,” “ground”
  • Line 5: “digging,” “down”
  • Lines 6-7: “flowerbeds / Bends”
  • Line 7: “twenty”
  • Line 8: “Stooping in rhythm through ”
  • Line 10: “boot”
  • Line 11: “knee,” “levered firmly”
  • Line 12: “rooted,” “tall tops”
  • Line 13: “To,” “new,” “potatoes”
  • Line 14: “cool”
  • Line 15: “man,” “handle”
  • Line 19: “him milk in”
  • Line 22: “Nicking,” “slicing,” “neatly,” “heaving”
  • Line 23: “Over his shoulder,” “down,” “down”
  • Line 25: “cold smell of potato mould,” “squelch”
  • Line 26: “Of soggy peat,” “edge”
  • Line 27: “Through,” “roots,” “ awaken,” “head”
  • Line 28: “no,” “follow,” “men,” “them”
  • Line 29: “my,” “my”
  • Line 30: “pen rests”
  • Line 31: “dig with it.”

• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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  Where caesura appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “rests; snug”
  • Line 3: “window, a”
  • Line 5: “ father, digging. I”
  • Line 7: “low, comes”
  • Line 12: “tops, buried”
  • Line 15: “God, the”
  • Line 20: “paper. He”
  • Line 21: “it, then”
  • Line 22: “neatly, heaving”
  • Line 23: “shoulder, going”
  • Line 24: “turf. Digging”
  • Line 25: “mould, the”
  • Line 26: “peat, the”

• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where consonance appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2
  • Line 3
  • Line 4
  • Line 5
  • Line 6
  • Line 7
  • Line 8
  • Line 9
  • Line 10
  • Line 11
  • Line 12
  • Line 13
  • Line 14
  • Line 15
  • Line 16
  • Line 17
  • Line 18
  • Line 19
  • Line 20
  • Line 21
  • Lines 22-23
  • Line 24
  • Line 25
  • Line 26
  • Line 27
  • Line 28
  • Lines 29-30

• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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  Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “gun.”
  • Line 4: “ground:”
  • Line 9: “digging.”
  • Line 11: “firmly.”
  • Line 13: “picked,”
  • Line 14: “hands.”
  • Line 15: “spade.”
  • Line 18: “bog.”
  • Line 24: “Digging.”
  • Line 27: “head.”
  • Line 28: “them.”
  • Line 30: “rests.”
  • Line 31: “it.”

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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  Where enjambment appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2: “thumb / The”
  • Lines 3-4: “sound / When”
  • Lines 5-6: “down / Till”
  • Lines 6-7: “flowerbeds / Bends”
  • Lines 7-8: “away / Stooping”
  • Lines 8-9: “drills / Where”
  • Lines 10-11: “shaft / Against”
  • Lines 12-13: “deep / To”
  • Lines 17-18: “day / Than”
  • Lines 19-20: “bottle / Corked”
  • Lines 20-21: “up / To”
  • Lines 21-22: “away / Nicking”
  • Lines 22-23: “sods / Over”
  • Lines 23-24: “down / For”
  • Lines 25-26: “slap / Of”
  • Lines 26-27: “edge / Through”
  • Lines 29-30: “thumb / The”

• Extended Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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  Where extended metaphor appears in the poem:

  • Lines 3-9
  • Lines 10-14
  • Lines 17-21
  • Lines 22-28
  • Lines 29-31

• Onomatopoeia

  

  

  

  

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  Where onomatopoeia appears in the poem:

  • Line 3: “clean rasping sound”
  • Lines 25-26: “the squelch and slap / Of soggy peat, the curt cuts”

• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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  Where repetition appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2: “Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.”
  • Line 5: “digging”
  • Line 8: “potato”
  • Line 9: “digging”
  • Line 13: “potatoes”
  • Line 15: “old man”
  • Line 16: “old man”
  • Line 23: “down and down”
  • Line 24: “Digging”
  • Line 25: “potato”
  • Lines 29-30: “Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests.”
  • Line 31: “dig”

• Simile

  

  

  

  

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  Where simile appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “snug as a gun.”

“Digging” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Squat
• Snug
• Gravelly
• Rump
• Stooping
• Drills
• Coarse
• Lug
• Shaft
• Tall tops
• Spade
• Turf
• Toner's Bog
• Corked
• Sods
• Peat
• Curt

• (Location in poem: Line 2: “squat”; Line 30: “squat”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Digging”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Digging” Speaker

“Digging” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Digging”

More “Digging” Resources

• External Resources

  • Heaney Looking Back — Heaney reflects on his life and career shortly after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.  

  • Heaney's Life and Poetry — A valuable resource from the Poetry Foundation.  

  • Heaney in the Archive — Heaney reads and discusses some of his poems, including "Digging."  

  • Ireland and the Potato — An interesting article about the relationship between Ireland and its key crop. 

  • Heaney and Muldoon — Heaney interviewed by fellow Irish poet, Paul Muldoon. 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Seamus Heaney

  • Blackberry-Picking

  • Bogland

  • Death of a Naturalist

  • Exposure

  • Follower

  • Mid-Term Break

  • Out of the Bag

  • Personal Helicon

  • Punishment

  • Requiem for the Croppies

  • Storm on the Island

  • The Tollund Man