2.7–Seamus Heaney, “Digging”

Link to Full Text:

http://• https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47555/digging

Author bio:

Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) was an Irish poet, playwright, and translator, widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. Born in County Derry, Northern Ireland, Heaney grew up in a rural farming community, an experience that deeply influenced his poetry. He studied English at Queen’s University Belfast and later became a lecturer there, as well as at other institutions including Harvard University and Oxford University.

Heaney’s work is known for its rich language and themes of identity, nature, and history. His first major collection, “Death of a Naturalist” (1966), established his reputation and showcased his talent for capturing the beauty and complexity of rural life. Over his career, he published numerous acclaimed collections, including “North” (1975), “Field Work” (1979), and “The Spirit Level” (1996).

In addition to his poetry, Heaney made significant contributions as a translator, with his translation of “Beowulf” (1999) being particularly celebrated. His work earned numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, recognized for his “works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth.”

Heaney’s legacy endures through his poetry, which continues to resonate with readers worldwide for its profound insight into human experience and the natural world. He passed away on August 30, 2013, leaving behind a rich and influential body of work.

Critical Context

While not many academic articles address “Digging” as their primary subject, articles/books abound on Heaney in general, as well as Heaney in relationship to Northern Ireland and the many subtopics that follow (fathers, religion, family, Irish diaspora to name just a few). Below are some notable texts on Heaney.

Fu-Yuan Shen, “Seamus Heaney and Irish Ethic Memory.” International Journal of Literary Humanities, vol. 11, no. 3, 2014.

Article Abstract:

Seamus Heaney uncovers the concrete ground of Irishness, exploring such issues as the irreversible historical sorrows, the desperate hope of the colonized, and the pantheism of nature. From a viewpoint of cultural studies, Heaney’s poetic description of bogs is examined to illuminate how Heaney endeavors to dig up ethnic memory from the Irish bogland. The central impulse of his poetic work is, in a sense, to break decisively with the violent homogenization of Ireland with Anglo-Saxon or Scottish Britain, to restore the lost native identity. Heaney strikes his poetic roots deep down into the heart of Ireland. It is his relentless quest for Irishness through history, culture, and mythology that makes Heaney a spokesperson for Ireland. During the 1960s, he was actively involved in the Catholic civil rights movement and witnessed social upheaval and violence in Northern Ireland. As a civil-rights activist, Heaney sets out in pursuit of a pure Ireland in his earlier collections such as Death of a Naturalist (1966) and Door Into the Dark (1969). The poems in these two collections reflect his romantic nostalgia for a unified, innocent Ireland. One of the most important motives of Heaney’s work is his search for Irishness. This motif is most eminently explored particularly in his poems concerning digging and bogland, each category of which is respectively based on rural traditions and archaeological facts. The digging poems expose the uniqueness of Irish country life; the bog poems treat Ireland’s special landscape of that scene as a symbol for an ethnic consciousness.

Russell, Richard Rankin. Seamus Heaney; An Introduction. Edinburgh UP, 2016.

Book Abstract: 

This study will enable readers to gain clearer understanding of the life and major works of Seamus Heaney. It considers literary influences on Heaney, ranging from English poets such as Wordsworth, Hughes, and Auden to Irish poets such as Kavanagh and Yeats to world poets such as Virgil and Dante. It shows how Heaney was closely attuned to poetry’s impact on daily life and current events even as he articulated a convincing apologia for poetry’s own life and integrity. Discussing Heaney’s deep immersion in Irish Catholicism, this book demonstrates how faith influenced his belief system, poetry and politics. Finally, it also considers how deeply Heaney’s artistic endeavours were intertwined with politics in Northern Ireland, especially through his embrace of constitutional nationalism but rejection of physical force republicanism.

Major Themes:

Fatherhood, Tradition and Heritage: The poem reflects on the speaker’s familial tradition of farming and digging, highlighting not only the generational link between his grandfather, father, and himself but also Irish history and the import of “digging” for the food (potatoes, peat) that both sustained the population and, when not there, contributed to its starvation. A thought: potato digging as a sort of metaphor for the love of a father and the traditions that father passes on–could that relationship also be both sustaining and (depending on how it functions) dangerous?

Identity and Self-Discovery: The speaker grapples with his identity and the way he diverges from the family tradition. Instead of digging with a spade, as his predecessors have done, the poet digs with his pen, uncovering his own path as a writer and man. Again, we can usefully broaden into metaphorical territory (and here’s a potential connection with another work we are reading–Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck”): what happens when we “dig” into our self and our history?

Pastoral Poetry., Reconsidered. Pastoral Poetry, which is generally contained to the 17th and 18th century, is a genre of poetry that idealizes rural life and landscapes, often contrasting them with the perceived corruption and complexity of urban existence. It typically features shepherds, nymphs, and other rustic characters who live in an idyllic, simplified world. The setting is usually a serene, natural landscape that emphasizes peace, simplicity, and harmony. The genre lsot most of its popularity with the development of Neo-Classical and Romantic poetry, as well as cultural/intellectual shifts such as The Enlightenment, with its focus on reason and rationality. Heaney, however, made use of pastoral elements, even as he understood the many complications that come with calling up that genre amid the contemporary complications he witnessed (esp. Northern Ireland’s famous “troubles” and the resulting complications of Irish heritage and tradition).  For more on Heaney and the pastoral, see Stephanie Alexander’s “They ‘smelt of rot’: Abjection and Infection in Seamuds Heaney’s Early Work”

Bonus Context: Lecture on “Digging”

Source: “Write a Short Biography of Seamus Heaney.” ChatGPT, 30 July 2024.