What are some examples of imagery in Seamus Heaney's poem "Digging"?

In Seamus Heaney's poem "Digging," the speaker describes his ancestors' digging using imagery and considers his own writing as his form of "digging."

The speaker begins by referencing a more figurative form of digging, as his "squat pen rests" between his fingers, "snug as a gun." This short stanza includes some imagery, as we can picture the speaker holding his pen. The simile "snug as a gun" also conveys how tightly he is holding the pen and how it seems to fit there.

Most of the imagery, however, is in the stanzas of the poem where the speaker describes his father and grandfather literally digging. Stanzas three and four are heavy on imagery:

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.

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.

Imagery helps us make mental pictures by appealing to one or more of our senses. It might be a useful exercise to underline each image you see (or hear, smell, etc.) as you read the poem. For example, in the second stanza, I hear a "clean rasping sound" and see how a "spade sinks" into the ground, so I would underline these words.

Imagery is something an author includes in order to help a reader create a mental image of what is being described. Most imagery appeals to one of the five senses: taste, touch, sight, sound, or smell. In regards to Seamus Heaney's "Digging," much imagery is used. 

First, Heaney appeals to the sense of touch by mentioning his finger and thumb. An engaged reader may begin to rub his or her finger and thumb together to gain a sense of the initial image provided here. 

Next, Heaney offers readers a simile. Comparing a pen to a gun, readers can sense what either, or both, feel like. Those familiar with holding a gun can picture the weapon in their hand. 

The third sentence appeals to the sense of hearing. The "rasping" sound of the spade hitting the rocks is relatively familiar. While not all readers may be familiar with a spade, most are familiar with the sound metal makes when it hits rock. 

What are examples of figurative language in Digging by Seamus Heaney?

Ordinary prose speech uses the grammatical structure of sentences as an organizing principle. Figures of speech depart from ordinary language either by using organizing principles (such as sound) in addition to grammatical structure or by using words to mean in unusual ways. 

Although Seamus Heaney's "Digging" is written in free verse and does not have a regular rhyme scheme, it does use occasional rhymes such as "sound-ground".

Another figure of speech used in the poem is assonance, which is repetition of vowel sounds. This can be seen in the pair "thumb - gun". 

Alliteration, or repetition of consonants or consonant groups is used in phrases such as "tall tops" and "gravelly ground". 

The poem as a whole is an extended metaphor, comparing the digging of his ancestors using a spade as a tool to dig into the earth and his own writing, which employs a pen as a tool. 

Figurative language allows a writer or poet to create visual images of events, occurrences, objects, people and so on in order to enhance a description of something without literally describing it which may be a boring process. In Digging by Seamus Heaney, Heaney talks about potato farming in Ireland, his native home. 

The narrator fondly remembers his father and grandfather before him and their contribution to the land and he wants to make it understood that their work was essentially difficult. The spade makes a "rasping" sound - onomatopoeia (when the sound is associated with the action)- and this ensures that the reader has a good mental picture and can imagine the sound which is then reinforced by alliteration, " the spade sinks into gravelly ground" as the "s" is repeated and the "g" is repeated to give an almost lyrical tone to the action. 

As he continues, the reader can perceive that the narrator's father is dead as the narrator speaks of "twenty years away," which is a euphemism for his father's death. An almost wistful and romantic image of potato farming develops from here and the narrator is immensely proud of his "roots" be they potato roots as they are pulled from the ground or his heritage. This then is a play on words as "roots" has a double meaning. The narrator also extends the metaphor of "digging" through the "roots" association. The fact that he intends to "dig" with his pen suggests that he will make his family proud of his achievements although he will be writing not farming. 

"Digging," by Seamus Heaney, contains multiple examples of figurative language. Figurative language, or poetic/rhetorical devices, is where an author manipulates language in order to make the text more vivid. Examples of figurative language used in Heaney's poem are as follows.

Repetition-- Repetition is where a word or phrase is repeated for effect. Line one contains repetition: "between my finger and my thumb." 

Alliteration-- Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound within a line of poetry. Line one also contains alliteration: the repeated "m" sound in "my." 

Simile-- A simile is a comparison between two unlike or dissimilar things (using "like" or "as"). Line two contains a simile: "The squat pen rests; snug as a gun." Here, a pen is compared to a gun. 

Personification--Personification is the giving of human characteristics to non-human/non-living things. Personification can be found in line two: "The squat pen rests." Here, the pen (an inanimate object) rests (something humans, not pens, do). 

How does Heaney depict landscape and place in the poem "Digging"?

Heaney's use of language in this poem is vivid, using imagery that appeals to multiple senses to evoke a sense of landscape and place. At the beginning of the poem, he sets the scene deftly through only the sparse, precise detail of "the squat pen" resting "between my finger and my thumb"; this is sufficient to create a picture of the speaker at a desk, writing. The window through which he then "looks down" is assumed to be the window of a study or the poet's writing room. Through the window drifts "a clean rasping sound," the adjective rounding out the initial setting with a quasi-onomatopoeic aural element, a sound we all recognize, a spade in "gravelly ground."

This sound transports the speaker, too, to a time "twenty years away" when his father was to be found digging potatoes. Heaney uses synecdoche to create a sense of memory: as in our memories we recall fine details which describe the whole, so Heaney details separate parts of his father which all stand in for the man himself. His "straining rump," "stooping in rhythm," "the coarse boot," and "the inside knee" generate a picture of a man active at work. The detail of the potatoes' "cool hardness in our hands" adds a further sensory depth to the memory, the alliteration in this line emphasizing it as an important part of the scene described.

Heaney's landscapes, like those in our memories, are not visual alone. The active verbs he uses to describe his grandfather's actions—"nicking and slicing," "heaving," "going down and down," "digging"—create a sense of continuous rhythmic action, like digging itself. The words "nicking" and "slicing," too, have sound connotations, much as the onomatopoeic "squelch and slap" evoke the "soggy peat" in which the speaker's grandfather dug. Specific sounds, such as the "curt cuts of an edge / through living roots," are aligned with alliteration: we imaging these "curt cuts" producing the same brisk sound the repeated c- sound suggests. The reference to "living roots," also, seems to have a dual connotation, referring both to the living roots of trees in the bog and to the living roots of a family, three generations of which are described in the poem.

Heaney is the living fruit of his family tree, but he cannot dig like his father and grandfather, "men like them." Instead, he uses repetition to draw our imagination back to the setting depicted at the very beginning of the poem, reminding us once more of the indoor scene of the writer: "Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests." There will be no digging in bogs for the speaker, but the work of his pen represents is a different, more metaphorical type of digging, into his own past.

How does Seamus Heaney incorporate Irish imagery in his poem "Digging?"

Potatoes were/are an important crop in Ireland. The speaker's father was a potato farmer. The speaker admires his father's work ethic and/or skill in using a shovel. The speaker also recalls his grandfather, another man very skillful with a shovel. He notes his grandfather could "cut more turf in a day / Than any other man in Toner's bog." Toner is presumably an Irish name. This is the land upon which his grandfather worked, passed down from previous generations. Or, it is the name of the family who owns the land. Irish people used (and some continue to use) turf as fuel instead of coal. His father and grandfather worked the land for food and fuel. 

The history of turf and potatoes in Irish culture parallels the speaker's own family history. He speaks of his father and grandfather digging - down to the roots. This shows his appreciation for his own family roots. There is also the morbid association of digging with graves. They worked to support their families and this shows how their harsh work led to their own graves. His predecessors worked hard labor for a living. He, the speaker, admires them for this but chooses another path: writing. He intends to dig with the pen. By this, he means that he will make a living as a writer, but he will also dig up his roots and remember his Irish family heritage in writing.