First Paragraph

In the poem “Digging” by Seamus Heaney, the idea of culture and heritage is explored through the use of figurative language such as simile, metaphor, and alliteration.
He is exploring his ancestry and the roots. This is a poetic memorial to those who came before him and it is also a new form of oral tradition. He “digs” up all the story of his ancestors. Although he is no longer able to follow the family’s tradition to be potato farmer, he is creating a new, better way to follow the family’s legacy.
Heaney uses a lot of figurative language in his poem to illustrate his view.
In the first stanza Heaney’s uses a strong similie in where he describes the pen snug as a gun.
”Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.”
In the next stanza:
“Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down”
He uses alliteration and assonance to point out the harshness of the type of work his father does without actually saying he is digging. The words gravelly, ground, sound, and down all contain alliteration and assonance.
He uses personification in the second to last stanza to describe his family roots awakening in his head. Something inanimate as his families roots are awakened by his writing and remembering.
“The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.”