Digging

Seamus Heaney’s “Digging,” originally published as the opening poem of Heaney’s celebrated collection Death of a Naturalist (1966), is an intense, onomatopoeic exploration of family, tradition, and inheritance. Heavily influenced by Heaney’s Irish heritage, “Digging” speaks to the intensely familial traditions of Ireland and its people, while also highlighting the tension between the old, agriculturally-based society of the past and the new realities of modern life in Ireland post World War II.

Described by poet Robert Lowell as “the most important Irish poet since Yeats,” Heaney was a poetic superpower who served as both the Poet in Residence at Harvard University (1988-2006) and as the Professor of Poetry at Oxford (1989-1994). In 1995, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Heaney’s work is heralded for its attention to place and landscape. It is impossible to divorce from Heaney’s work the natural beauty of Northern Ireland or the history of its rural working class. Farm life, physical labor, and the mythologically-charged power of Ireland’s bogs are common themes in Heaney’s work. Like Yeats before him, Heaney was touched by the political unrest in Northern Ireland, and his work often deals with the upheaval and violence of the Troubles.