Digging
- Created by: qwerty86
- Created on: 25-01-15 18:24
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- Digging
- There is no pattern to the stanzas, perhaps to reflect the idea that there is no pattern or predictability to our memories.
- Title is blunt
- His grandfather dug turf, his father dug up potatoes, Heaney is digging up his memories and his past.
- Tenses
- Then goes into the past tense when he remembers his father and grandfather at work
- The last two stanzas return to the present, when Heaney realises that his work is to write.
- The enjambment between the second and third stanza is dramatic.
- Heaney looks down from his window to see his father digging - and then we find he is looking back twenty years
- The pause between the stanzas indicates the gap in time.
- Quotes
- "My grandfather cut more turf in a day"
- Heaney boasts about his grandfather's skill - he presents him as a champion digger
- "By God, the old man could handle a spade."
- his reminds us that Heaney's father is now an old man, but also shows his fondness for him
- Old man is a common term of affection. Heaney is clearly proud of him too.
- "My grandfather cut more turf in a day"
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