{"id":376,"date":"2013-09-22T22:07:26","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T02:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/?p=376"},"modified":"2013-10-02T22:03:33","modified_gmt":"2013-10-03T02:03:33","slug":"digging-seamus-heaney-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/?p=376","title":{"rendered":"Digging &#8211; Seamus Heaney"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[audio:seamus_heaney_poem_digging.mp3] (1:39)<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">(audio from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mp3olimp.net\/seamus-heaney\/\" target=\"_blank\">mp3olimp<\/a>)<br \/>\n(text from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poem\/177017\" target=\"_blank\">poetry foundation<\/a>)<br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\nBetween my finger and my thumb<br \/>\nThe squat pen rests; snug as a gun.<\/p>\n<p>Under my window, a clean rasping sound<br \/>\nWhen the spade sinks into gravelly ground:<br \/>\nMy father, digging. I look down<\/p>\n<p>Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds<br \/>\nBends low, comes up twenty years away<br \/>\nStooping in rhythm through potato drills<br \/>\nWhere he was digging.<\/p>\n<p>The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft<br \/>\nAgainst the inside knee was levered firmly.<br \/>\nHe rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep<br \/>\nTo scatter new potatoes that we picked,<br \/>\nLoving their cool hardness in our hands.<\/p>\n<p>By God, the old man could handle a spade.<br \/>\nJust like his old man.<\/p>\n<p>My grandfather cut more turf in a day<br \/>\nThan any other man on Toner\u2019s bog.<br \/>\nOnce I carried him milk in a bottle<br \/>\nCorked sloppily with paper. He straightened up<br \/>\nTo drink it, then fell to right away<br \/>\nNicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods<br \/>\nOver his shoulder, going down and down<br \/>\nFor the good turf. Digging.<\/p>\n<p>The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap<br \/>\nOf soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge<br \/>\nThrough living roots awaken in my head.<br \/>\nBut I\u2019ve no spade to follow men like them.<\/p>\n<p>Between my finger and my thumb<br \/>\nThe squat pen rests.<br \/>\nI\u2019ll dig with it.<\/p>\n<p>(1966)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[audio:seamus_heaney_poem_digging.mp3] (1:39) (audio from mp3olimp) (text from poetry foundation) Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks into gravelly ground: My father, digging. I look down Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds Bends low, comes up twenty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-seamus-heaney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions\/385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poem.oftheweek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}