Cultivating an Affirmation of the Past in the Poem “Digging”

The significance of the past is given an affirmation in the poem, Digging, written by Nobel Prize awardee Seamus Heaney. The persona in the poem takes a nostalgic trip into his past, reminiscing about the old days when he watched and participated in potato farming with his father and grandfather. Both men cut through fatigue and hard work with excellence this is emphasized when the persona states his admiration for the saving grace and competence exhibited by the men By God, the old man could handle a spade/Just like his old man. (15-16) However, the demarcation marge between the persona and his earlier generation is cl primaeval defined early on.In the first two lines of the poem, he establishes the idea that he is a writer a man who prefers handling a pen, symbolizing academic and fine profession, over a handling a spade, symbolizing hard labor, among my finger and my thumb/The squat pen rests snug as a gun. (lines 1-2) Nevertheless, the value and pride of each separate wor k is equally praised by the persona. He conveys the idea that there is no difference if sensation uses a pen, or a spade in work, no difference when one plows a field or scribbles on paper. The only important subject is the love and passion one dedicates to ones profession or work.