For Teachers preferably.. gives class work, homework, and test contents. Mid-Term Break and Digging

2.  Born: 13 April 1939, Derry, Northern Ireland
 Died: 30 August 2013, Dublin, Ireland(74)
 Poet, playwright, translator

3.  Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as 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 years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the
shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright
edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade,
Just like his old man.
 My grandfather could cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He
straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, digging down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mold, 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.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNRkP
U1LSUg&feature=player_detailpage#t=20

4.  I was first attracted to this
poem because of the title, I
was interested in what way
the author would describe
“Digging”. I found this
poem interesting because
the author uses figurative
language to describe how
he is the 3rd generation to
“Dig”. His grandfather dug
turf, his father dug up
potatoes, and he is now
learning to dig in another
sense. He is writing his
poem, bringing back the
past.
 In his writing Seamus
Heaney uses a lot of
literacy including run-on-
lines on many occasions,
where one line of poetry
flows into the next without
the use of a paragraph,
carrying on the meaning.
Examples of this are seen
in lines 1-2, 3-4, 6-9. in one
instance he has one stanza
flowing into the next very
effectively to tie his
thoughts together.

5.  This is a narrative
poem that tells a story
as the poem
progresses, and uses
the first person seen
with the use of “my”.
He tells the story of his
father and grandfather
and how it leads him to
respecting his elders
but following their
footsteps in another
way.
 He uses a simile in line
2 to express the
similarity of how he
holds his pen, to the
position a gun would
take.

6. 1. Where is the poet and what is he looking
at?
2. How do you know that he goes back in
time in his memory?
3. How do you know that the poet is proud
of his father?
4. Is the poet able to dig like his father and
grandfather?

7. 1. What decision does the poet reach at the
very end of the poem?
2. What comparison is made in the opening
lines of the poem?
3. There are two types of “Digging” in this
poem, can you identify and explain
them?
4. There are a number of sound, smells and
texture in this poem. Can you find them?
How do they add to the description?

8.  I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a
close.
At two o'clock our neighbours drove me
home.
In the porch I met my father crying--
He had always taken funerals in his
stride--
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard
blow.
The baby cooed and laughed and
rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was
embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my
hand
And tell me they were "sorry for my
trouble,"
Whispers informed strangers I was the
eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my
hand
 In hers and coughed out angry
tearless sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and
bandaged by the nurses.
Next morning I went up into the room.
Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I
saw him
For the first time in six weeksPaler
now,
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left
temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in his
cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked
him clear.
A four foot box, a foot for every year
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF0U0
pVK0bk&feature=player_detailpage

9. 1. What is happening at the beginning of the
poem?
2. Do you think that Seamus and his brother
was close?
3. What does Seamus mean by “The baby
cooed and laughed and rocked the pram”
4. Why didn’t he see his brother in six weeks?
5. “A four foot box, A foot for every year”
explain this in your own words.

10.  Compare Heaney’s two poems “Digging”
and “Mid-Term Break” under these
headings:
1. Theme
2. Language – imagery, alliteration, striking words

11.  How do I do this?
- In theme- write how the themes are different,
be personal, did they affect you in any way?,
which one did you like better?, Are they
universal poems?.
 What did you like about the language
used?
- Did you notice that Heaney likes to use
alliteration – what affects does this have?, Is
his imagery easy to understand?, Can you
picture his images?.

12.  Be personal!
- means to offer your own opinion as you
write, for example, I feel that in this
image…This reminds me of…I can see clearly
here that Heaney….OR ...I know that…I would
certainly like to read more of Heaney’s poems.
 Phrases to use!
- This is a vivid image…The poet points a
picture of….It is evident(clear/obvious)
that…There is no doubt that…How ever in the
other poem.

13. 1. Compare the tones on the two poems
“Digging” and “Mid-Term Break”.
2. Choose an image from one poem, say why
you liked it.
3. Explain the meaning of one poem in your
own words, do it stanza by stanza.

14.  Write a poem, use the following:
1. Image
2. Metaphors
3. Personification
4. Run-on-lines
5. Mood
6. Onomatopoeia
- (Your poem can be about anything)

15.  In your test there will be:
1. Fill in the blanks on the poems.
2. Questions.
3. Basic Information about Seamus Heaney.