"Digging" is the first poem of Seamus Heaney's first collection, Death of a Naturalist (1966). He wrote it in his mid-twenties and is based on the country world he lived in at that time when especially his father and grandfather would live to work the land to support their families.
Seamus starts by comparing his pen with a gun when he says that the squat pen rests; snug as a gun (2) considering it powerful even though it is resting. He describes his pen as short and thick, and it feels perfectly comfortable between his finger and thumb.
He contemplates his father through the window and remembers how dedicated he and his grandfather had always been (3-9). Back then, they would work the land day and night as real tough men, without resting. In Heaney’s poem, he shows great admiration towards his father and grandfather, but at the same time there is also a mix of feelings. At a point he gets angry because he does not see himself digging the land like his father and grandfather did (28). In some way he wishes he could be like them, to follow that tradition, but he knows that his vocation is making use of his quality as a writer. That is the best way he can make a tribute, recognition to his elders and excel as a writer. The end is very similar to the beginning, with the only difference that he finally decides to dig his way with his short thick pen.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it (29-31).
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