Miracle on St David’s Day
Digging
Structure and Form
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 the gravely ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
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 his spade.
Just like his old man.
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
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
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.
• The title ‘Digging’ could refer to his father digging, his grandfather digging and/
or Heaney metaphorically digging into his past.
• Heaney describes what he sees and feels (‘the squat pen’ resting between his
‘finger’ and ‘thumb’) using a simile to show how comfortable this is (‘snug as a
gun’). The simile is particularly appropriate as the adjective ‘snug’, when
reversed, spells ‘guns’. He is readying himself to write, perhaps to write this
poem.
• He uses onomatopoeia (‘rasping’) and alliteration (‘spade sinks’; ‘gravely
ground’) to describe the sound and movement of his father digging twenty years
ago (‘twenty years away’).
• He remembers the effort with which his father tackled the work (‘straining’).
• The verb ‘nestled’ suggests that although his father’s boot is ‘coarse’ it is
comfortable on the ‘lug’ (base) of the spade – just as the pen is comfortable
between Heaney’s ‘ finger’ and ‘thumb’. The technical language used (‘lug’ and
‘shaft’) underlines his father’s skill as a farmer. His father ‘buried the bright
edge’ of the spade ‘deep’. The description of the spade could easily be applied
to a sword. Are we meant to see his father as a heroic figure? Notice that his
father’s work provides food (‘new potatoes’) and is, therefore, of real value.
• He uses colloquial language to further underline his father’s skill as a farmer, and
his admiration of this: ‘By God, the old man could handle his spade.’ We are
reminded of the image of his father and Heaney’s relationship with him in the
poem Follower. This simple statement is then followed by a similar statement:
‘Just like his old man.’ Attention is drawn to the fact that farming was a family
tradition.
• He metaphorically digs further into the past to remember his grandfather’s
digging. His grandfather cut ‘turf’ (peat) which would have been used as a
source of fuel in rural Ireland at that time. Like his father’s work, his
grandfather’s work is, therefore, of real value. Heaney is obviously proud of his
grandfather as he writes that the latter ‘cut more turf in a day/ Than any other
man on Toner’s bog.’ He remembers taking his grandfather a drink of ‘milk in a
bottle/ Corked sloppily with paper’. The onomatopoeic adverb (‘sloppily’)
underlines the ‘sloppy’ movement of the milk, probably carried clumsily by
Heaney in his youth, which contrasts with the ‘neat’ movements of his
grandfather. His grandfather’s skill is again underlined by the use of the
assonant verbs ‘nicking’ and ‘slicing’. His effort is emphasised by the verb
‘heaving’, which causes the reader to aspirate when it is read aloud. Notice that
the verbs ‘nicking’, ‘slicing’ and ‘digging’ are present participles. This suggests
that the memory is ongoing – it is so deeply rooted it will never fade.
• He appeals to the reader’s sense of smell to describe the ‘potato mould’, which
has a ‘cold smell’. Onomatopoeic words (‘squelch and slap’) appeal to the
reader’s sense of sound to describe the ‘soggy peat’. Alliterative monosyllabic
words are used (‘curt cuts’) to underline the movement of the spade. Heaney
confides that he has ‘no spade to follow men like them’. Do you think that he
feels sad and / or frustrated at this point? Remember that it is doubtful whether
his literary talents would have been immediately acknowledged with pride.
Writing was seen as a more sensitive exercise than the physically testing activity
of farming, and would probably been considered a weakness.