Images in Digging
Explore Heaney’s themes and poetic technique in ‘Digging’ and ‘Follower’. In this essay I’m going to explain the themes and poetic technique in the poems ‘Follower’ and ‘Digging’, both written by Seamus Heaney. ... This is the constant theme through the larger majority of ‘Digging’ – Heaney’s admiration for his father. ... This is also part of a reoccurring theme in ‘Digging’ and ‘Follower’ – nature, the horses and the furrows and the theme of farming tie in to the theme of nature. ... It seems as though Heaney’s father’s life was completley about ‘digging’ and he was even becoming the part because it had completley taken over his life, this is proven again because we never see Heaney portraying his father in any other way other than when he’s farming, he’s an incomplete character. ... Whilst ‘Digging’ is not particularly structured and there is no pattern at all to where the rhyming couplets appear. The first two lines in ‘Digging’ are a rhyming couplet: Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. ... It also gives the impression of the rhythm that the father has whilst digging, showing that he’s methodical. ‘My father, digging, I look down’, this could be seen as not only is Heaney literally looking down at his father from his bedroom window, but he’s hanging his head in shame for what his father is, or he feels that he’s above him. ... Digging. ... It’s also saying that if you go deeper – ‘down and down’ – you’ll find satisfaction in digging, you have to look beyond the mud and dirt. ... ’, I believe that this statement is using ‘spade’ as a metaphor for ‘the skill of digging’, because his skill is writing, and perhaps he feels a little guilty for not being able to follow them. ... There is no rhythm to this last verse like in the first, but rhythm signified digging, and Heaney isn’t going to dig anymore, he’s going to write. The lack of rhythm also signifies the end of the cycle, he no longer feels the guilt because now he’s going to carry on the family tradition, but not in the traditional way, he’s going to keep digging alive by writing about it. ... It also has the theme of duty, the duty to keep the family tradition of digging, the theme guilt ties in to this theme because the poet felt guilt for not accepting his duty for keeping the family tradition.