Seamus Heaney: Digging

Between my finger and my thumb \n The squat pen rests%%; sn%%^^u^^%%g as a g%%^^u^^%%n%%.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound \n ==When the== spade sinks ==into gravelly ground==: \n My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds \n Bends low, comes up twenty years away \n Stooping in rhythm through potato drills \n Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft \n Against the inside knee was levered firmly. \n ==He rooted out tall tops==, buried the bright edge deep \n To scatter new potatoes that we picked, \n Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, %%the old man could handle a spade. \n Just like his old man.%%

My grandfather cut more turf in a day \n ^^Than any other man on Toner’s bog.^^ \n Once I carried him milk in a bottle \n Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up \n To drink it, then fell to right away

==Nicking and slicing neatly==, heaving sods \n Over his shoulder, going down and down \n For the good turf. Digging.

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

Between my finger and my thumb \n The squat pen rests. \n ^^I’ll dig with it.^^

}}Simile => green}}

• The squat pen rests; snug as a gun
• The old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man.
• I’ve no spade to follow men like them

[[Alliteration => red[[

• When the spade sinks into gravelly ground
• He rooted out tall tops
• Nicking and slicing neatly
• The squelch and slap of soggy peat

< blue<<

• The squat pen rests; snug as a gun
• Than any other man on Toner’s bog
• I’ll dig with it
• The cold smell of potato mould

Other poetic devices => yellow

• Repetition: The squat pen rests
• Sibilance: When the spade sinks into gravelly ground