Seamus Heaney's poem “Digging,” an eight-stanza poem written in free verse, is the first of his collection of poems entitled Death of a Naturalist, published in 1966. Written in first fiction personal, this circularly structured poem uses formalistic elements to reconcile the fact that the speaker will not follow in the footsteps of his ancestors as a common worker. However, throughout the poem there are subtle hints that the speaker does not fulfill some aspects of the male stereotype. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The poem's vivid imagery helps reveal that the speaker is trying to rationalize and justify his career choice, but it also reveals his respect for the digging, trading of his ancestors. In the second line of the poem, the speaker describes the pen as resting between his thumb and forefinger “as comfortable as a gun” (line 2). This simile suggests that the pen is warm and comfortable in his hands, but at the same time suggests the pen's ability to fire words forcefully, just as a gun forcefully fires bullets. The poet continues this same idea of ​​something appropriate when he refers to his father's boot as “nestled on the handle” of the spade (10). The speaker questions whether or not he, an educated writer, fits in with his ancestors, manual laborers whom he admires. His admiration shines through in the other key image of “Digging”: his father's “tight rump,” which is described as “leaning into the rhythm through the potato planting” (7-9). The precision and rhythm of his movements match the precision and rhythm of his spade at work. In this early stage of the poem, the speaker questions whether writing can match the precision, productivity, and strange beauty of manual labor. The poet uses language to accentuate his thoughts on this topic. For example, all the words in line two - the line describing his "stubby" pen - are short and stubby to emphasize the description of the pen (2). When the speaker hears the sound of his father's spade digging, he lets the reader hear it too in the word “rasp” (3), an onomatopoeia, and in the hard alliterative sound of “gravelly earth” (4). The speaker also uses alliteration to highlight the sharp, precise sound of his father's spade going into the ground when he describes the “high peaks” and how his father “buried the bright edge deep” (12). The precision of the blade of his ancestors is captured again when the poet writes of “cutting and slicing,” an onomatopoeia that makes the reader relive the movement of the blade. As the speaker's father digs deeper, the words become more metallic and the hollow phrase “down and down” produces an echo that emphasizes the depth of the hole (23). When the smell of potato mold surfaces, the descriptions change, conjuring an image of dampness. The sounds transform into words such as “squelch and slap,” an alliterative and onomatopoeic device used to imitate the noise made in wet clay (25). This richly detailed language clearly illustrates the poet's admiration for the work of his ancestors, but it also raises the question: why is the speaker so uncertain about whether he is a writer? A gender critic would respond that writing is not as masculine a profession as digging or digging. any other type of manual work. The near abundance of admiration for men certainly merits gender-based criticism. Indeed, Heaney's descriptions of the speaker's father and grandfather embody the male stereotype of the strong, rugged man. He describes them with words like “strain” (6), “coarse” (10), “hard” (11), and “rooted” (12)..