I Can Dig It

A response to "Digging" by Seamus Heaney.

I don't think any poem capture the appreciation and reconciliation of family heritage as well as in the poem "Digging" by Seamus Heaney. An Irish poet, he begins the second stanza of the poem by reflecting on his father and grandfathers before him. There is an innocence to the manual labor his forefathers did in the fields and he holds great renown for them. He brings the poem to a closure by  saying, "But I've no spade to follow men like them." The speaker of the poem respects the men who worked all their lives in hard conditions. Nevertheless, the speaker feels the job isn;t for him. I love the simplicity and genuineness that flows through the entire poem. Most children want to live up to their parents expectations, and eventually we all make a choice to follow in our forefathers footsteps or begging new life decisions. Whatever we choose to do, make sure it is the right choice, embrace it, and "dig with it."