Student Question
Is Seamus Heaney's poem "Digging" considered a modern poem?
Quick answer:
Seamus Heaney's poem "Digging" is not typically considered a "modern" poem in the sense of the early 20th-century modernist movement, which features free verse, non-linear structure, and literary experimentation. Although "Digging" uses free verse, its narrative style and regional focus align more with the Georgian or anti-modern approach. Heaney's work is better categorized as contemporary, reflecting the late 20th century rather than modernism.
The answer to whether Seamus Heaney's poem "Digging" should be considered a
"modern" poem depends on what you mean by modern.
Literary critics associate the term "modernism" with a specific literary
movement of the early twentieth century that included use of free verse,
non-linear structure, engagement with the industrial or post-industrial world,
and often various forms of literary experimentation.
Although "Digging" is written in free verse, its narrative technique and
regional focus seem closer to the Georgian or anti-modern style than to
international modernism.
In period, Heaney would be considered contemporary (late 20th century and
after) rather than modern.
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