Contemporary Poetry: Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” Answers

Read the excerpt from "Digging."Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.Under my window, a clean rasping soundWhen the spade sinks into gravelly ground:My father, digging. I look downTill his straining rump among the flowerbedsBends low, comes up twenty years awayStooping in rhythm through potato drillsWhere he was digging.Read the haiku by Bashō. A crowhas settled on a bare branch— autumn evening.How does the structure of these poems differ?

Which lines from the poem "Digging” use assonance? Check all that apply.The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:Bends low, comes up twenty years awayBy God, the old man could handle a spade.Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods

Read the excerpt from "Digging."The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slapOf soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edgeThrough living roots awaken in my head.