At Potato Digging

By Seamus Heaney
THE POET:
- Seamus Heaney is widely recognized as one of the major
poets of the 20th century.
- He was the author of over 20 volumes of poetry and
criticism, and edited several widely used anthologies.
- He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 "for works of
lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday
miracles and the living past."
- Heaney taught at Harvard University (1985-2006) and
served as the Oxford Professor of Poetry (1989-1994).
- He died in 2013.
THE POEM:
- Seamus Heaney's poem "At a Potato Digging," features
two contrasting depictions of a potato harvest.
- One is the harvest from the present day that goes
successfully and which delivers a rich crop
- The second potato harvest looks back to the famine of
1845 when the crop failed and many people starved
- This is a poem concerned with Irish history.
- Looming over the scene depicted is the specter
(ghost apparition) of the potato famine that
afflicted Ireland from 1845-49.
- The potato crop, staple for the Irish, failed, and with
cataclysmic results.
- About half the population of three million died, while a
million people emigrated many to America.
- Whilst the famine is no longer a threat, its ongoing fear
remains and this can be seen in the use of religious
language throughout the poem. For example, the bowed
heads of the potato pickers suggest the desire to respect
the gods and show them respect.
- The use of religious imagery in the poem is a means of
helping the reader to understand the importance of the
potato harvest to the people of Ireland.

Themes:
- Nature The poem deals with the natural world and the
different aspects of nature can be seen in the reference to
the earth as the black mother that gives life and also the
bitch earth that is capable of inflicting great suffering.
- Suffering The suffering of the people of Ireland is
described in detail in the poem and we understand the
extent of the misery that was caused by the famine.
- The Past Heaneys desire to make connections between
the past and present is very important to the poem a link
is made between events more than a century apart.
I The Present
Depiction of a modern potato harvest with "a
mechanical digger"
The poem begins with Heaney describing workers in a potato
field in Ireland. The poem describes a rural scene of potato
digging that is in progress much later than a similar scene
around the time of the famine.They follow a machine that
turns up the crop and they put these into a basket and then
store them.
A mechanical digger wrecks the drill,
Spins up a dark shower of roots and mould.
Labourers swarm in behind, stoop to fill - Metaphor
Wicker creels. Fingers go dead in the cold.-Tactile Imagery
Heaney describes a mechanical digger that wrecks the
drill. He aims at the machine age and there is a sense that
it is destructive. Humans are presented as insects who
swarm in behind, having to stoop to fill / Wicker
creels.People seem obeisant to the mechanical digger
and their baskets are the traditional containers for the crop,
linking them with the potato diggers of the past. An ominous
atmosphere is established - inhospitable weather makes
Fingers go dead in the cold

Like crows attacking crow-black fields, they stretch- Simile

A higgledy line from hedge to headland;- Metaphor
Some pairs keep breaking ragged ranks to fetch
A full creel to the pit and straighten, stand- Metaphor
Having likened the potato gatherers to insects, Heaney
goes on to say that they are Like crows attacking crowblack fields. This bleak image conjures the idea of
carrion feeders as well as suggesting something of an omen.
There is also nothing exceedingly organised about the
operation as the people are in a higgledy line. This idea is
emphasised through Heaneys choice of the military word
ranks premodified by the adjective ragged.
Tall for a moment but soon stumble back
To fish a new load from the crumbled surf. - Metaphor
Heads bow, trucks bend, hands fumble towards the black
Mother. Processional stooping through the turf- Metaphor
The work is back breaking and it is clear that it is
unremitting( incessant, assiduous, unrelenting) because the
workers may only stand / Tall for a moment but soon
stumble back / to fish a new load from the crumbled surf
(lines 8-10). Their subservience to machine, soil and crop
is made clear through further details such as Heads bow,
trunks bend, hands fumble (line 11). Their activity is
described as Processional stooping (line 12) which conveys
their numbers but also the idea that they are in a procession.
Homage = reverence,
Turns work to ritual. Centuries
service
Of fear and homage to the famine god
Toughen the muscles behind their humbled knees,
Sod = home turf
Make a seasonal altar of the sod.

This has both a religious connotation and one that is purely

mortal. The resonance of the famine past gives us a sense
that there is a queue for death being formed. The fact that
this is presented as happening mindlessly as autumn is
both potentially pejorative(derogatory, deprecating) and
indicative of the idea that there is an unquestioning
continuance of this activity. The season of autumn is

obviously that of harvest but is also the time of year when

trees drop their leaves. So, there is a complexity of ideas
being communicated here, particularly when one remembers
the historical background relating to the potato and its crucial
significance to Irish life. The crop being gathered in the
poems present is garnered with the spectre of the
past blight behind it. Heaney concludes the first part of
the poem with overt references to the potato famine. The
religious quality that was hinted at previously is now explicit
in homage, famine god, humbled and seasonal altar.
The ground becomes the locus of worship each year as
those harvesting are only too aware that such largesse in
nature cannot be taken for granted. There is a primitive,
pagan dimension to the description that aligns the
potato diggers with cultures more ancient than the
Christian
II- (Healthy potatoes being described)
Part II of the poem concentrated specifically on the
potato itself rather than those who harvest it.
Flint-white, purple. They lie scattered- Visual Imagery
Like inflated pebbles. Native - Simile
to the blank hutch of clay
where the halved seed shot and clotted - Visual Imagery
these knobbed and slit-eyed tubers seem
the petrified hearts of drills. Split - Metaphor
by the spade, they show white as cream.-Simile
Heaney provides details about what a healthy potato harvest
should look like. He uses details and figurative language to
create realistic imagery of the potatos' appearance. He uses a
simile in line eighteen, "like inflated pebbles;" the poet's diction
suggests health and vitality; the earth has "good smells"
and "a clean birth" of the potatoes, using a birth metaphor to
describe the harvest. They seem to be petrified hearts of
drills (line 22). In this fine image, the potatoes are
presented as having turned to stone, having been described
previously as inflated pebbles. The common use of the
word petrified is associated with fear. We are reminded of

the trepidation with which each harvest is approached.

Heaney goes on to say that these potatoes are Split / by the
spade communicating both a very straightforward process
but also suggesting that those digging in the time of the
potato blight( affliction) would have their own hearts
metaphorically split by the act of cutting into a rotten
crop.These, though show white as cream
Good smells exude from crumbled earth. Olfactory Imagery
The rough bark of humus erupts
knots of potatoes (a clean birth)
whose solid feel, whose wet inside- Tactile Imagery
promises taste of ground and root.
To be piled in pits; live skulls, blind-eyed.- Metaphor
Also, there is no rot in them, they are knots with a solid
feel. There is a complicated image at the close of Part 2
that is redolent both of gratitude and horror. The potatoes are
piled in pits and are described as live skulls which
reminds us of victims of atrocity as well as conveying
the arresting visual metaphor that convinces us that a
potato can look like a skull. The fact that they are blindeyed suggests that they are utterly unaware of the
way in which they have, in the past, been intimately
involved in a pivotal event in Irish history. The live
skulls image prepares for its repetition in Part III that
modulates from a metaphorical description of a potato to a
shocking depiction of what human beings literally
become as they are reduced to skeletal beings by
hunger.
III The Past (Famine in Ireland)
Part III is a much more direct and graphic
contemplation upon the reality and impact of the Irish
potato famine
The third section writes about the famine of the past a sharp
contrast to the prior section . Fungus destroyed the entire
crop of potatoes and this happened for three consecutive years.

Ireland was devastated and there were many deaths with

people being forced to flee Ireland.
Wolfed = gorged on
Live skulls, blind-eyed, balanced on- Visual Imagery
wild higgledy skeletons - Metaphor
Scoured= gnarled
scoured the land in 'forty-five,'
Blighted = devastated
wolfed the blighted root and died. - Metaphor

Heaney describes a time when the harvest was poor; his

diction conjures imagery of sickness and disease with
phrases like "blighted root" and "stinking potatoes fouled
the land." He carefully describes the famine's effect on the
population by flashing images of the aftermath in tight,
controlled phrases. The people are objectified into parts like
"mouths tightened in, eyes died hard." His disgusted tone
reflects the speaker's anger at the failure of the crop.
Heaney opens with the image of starving people as Live
skulls, blind-eyed, balanced on / wild higgledy
skeletons (lines 31-2). We are transported back in time to
the mid nineteenth century where people could be wild
with hunger. The word higgledy reminds us of the
higgledy line of diggers described in Part I. This links the
centuries and shows that the activity is the same and that, as
humans, we are in thrall to the vicissitudes (vagaries)
and unpredictability of nature. In our modern world we
are all too familiar with the effects of famine around the
world caused by crop failure. It is sobering to learn that so
many people died so close to our own country. Shockingly,
people were so hungry that they would eat rotten
potatoes, and these poisoned them.
The new potato, sound as stone, - Simile
putrefied when it had lain
three days in the long clay pit.
Millions rotted along with it. - Symbolism

Putrefied = decomposed,
rotten

There is a macabre transformation described in stanza

two of Part III. We left Part II with a description of a
permanently sound potato crop but this one only seemed to
be sound as stone (recalling the inflated pebbles in Part

II). The solid petrified of Part II becomes the putrefied of

this one. The clay pit suggests a place of human burial
as well as the trench where potatoes rot. The line, Millions
rotted along with it refers, on the surface, to potatoes but
it also signals to us that the effect of this was to result in the
death of mind boggling numbers of people, so dependant
were they upon their staple crop.
Mouths tightened in, eyes died hard, - Visual Imagery
faces chilled to a plucked bird.
In a million wicker huts
beaks of famine snipped at guts. - Metaphor
The third stanza of Part III is uncompromising depiction of
the effects of starvation on a human body: Mouths
tightened in, eyes died hard. The image of a plucked
bird suggests nakedness and death. The bird imagery is
extended at the end of a stanza as Heaney presents beaks
of famine that snipped at guts. Here we are given the
horrific vision of people as carrion meat for vultures.
Although this is metaphorical, it is nonetheless extremely
powerful in evoking the pain of starvation. The peoples
dwelling, wicker huts are places of privation
( deprivation, adversity), whereas the wicker creels
in Part I are containers of plenty.
A people hungering from birth,
grubbing, like plants, in the bitch earth, Simile
were grafted with a great sorrow.
Hope rotted like a marrow. Simile

Grubbing= taking nourishment

Grafted =embedded

The land of Ireland itself is, the object of resentment for

those who endured the terrible suffering of the Great
Hunger. The cultural collective of A people hungering
from birth takes on a political dimension as well as
purely descriptive one. The degradation of having to
grub like plants makes the people seem worth no
more than weeds so it is unsurprising that they should feel
that their land is the bitch earth. The verb grafted is
normally used in gardening circles to describe a process that

results in the enhancement of life or the production of a new,

vigorous strain of plant. Here, though, the famine only
results in a grafting to sorrow. The dismal Hope
rotted like a marrow is only trumped by the description of
the closing stanza of this part of the poem.
Stinking potatoes fouled the land,-Olfactory Imagery
pits turned pus in filthy mounds:
and where potato diggers are
you still smell the running sore.
The lines are littered with images of decay, rot and
stench: Stinking, fouled pus, filthy and running
sore remind us that although the famine is over, it lives on
in the memory of the people. In writing the poem, Heaney is
keeping such memory alive. There was a great deal of
resentment during and following the potato famine.
While Irish people starved to death, some of the landlords
continued to bleed the country of its resources.
IV- Back to the Present - A revisitation of the scene in
the first section
Part IV modulates from an atmosphere of privation
(adversity, misery) to one of plenty Heaney returns to
the first section of the poem Ireland in the 1960s at
lunchtime. The workers sit happily, with food to eat.
Under a white flotilla of gulls
Flotilla = fleet
The rhythm deadens, the workers stop.
White bread and tea in bright canfuls
Are served for lunch. Dead-beat, they flop
Although the workers in the field are Dead-beat they are
not dying, they are simply exhausted from their work. There
is a gay flotilla of gulls that gives the impression of a
group of little boats around a great ocean-going vessel. This
is a far cry form the ominous crows, plucked bird and the
vulture-like spectre that we meet earlier in the poem.
Although The rhythm deadens inevitably links in the
readers mind to the death we have already been confronted

with earlier in the poem, there is now a new mood of

optimism. The workers eat Brown bread and drink tea in
bright canfuls. Rather than simply being servants of
the earth, they are served lunch. In their tiredness
they are able to take their fill in the way that their
ancestors could not. Their labour will be rewarded with the
satisfaction of garnering a sound potato crop, while their
antecedents faced the despair of having worked until they
too were Dead-beat but with only the spectre of death
looming before them instead of the prospect of being served
lunch as recompense for their labour.
Down in the ditch and take their fill,
Thankfully breaking timeless fasts;
Then, stretched on the faithless ground, spill
Libations of cold tea, scatter crusts.

Libations = beverages
Faithless ground = the
ground that betrayed the trust
of the farmers

The timeless fasts are broken here but in the past they
were eternal. The poem concludes with another complex set
of ideas. As the workers stretch out in their rest, they are
described lying on faithless ground. This reminds us of
the fact that nature can set its face flint-like against
humanity, we cannot predict how it will behave.
Although the ground is faithless, a pagan image of an offering
to the bitch earth of Part III is striking as the workers spill /
Libations of cold tea, scatter crusts. As well as seeming like
an offering to the earth (a libation is a drink offering to a
god), there is also the clear sense that in times of plenty
we tend to be profligate (decadent, squandering). No
famine victim could afford to throw away tea dregs or crusts.
The words spill and scatter capture this sense of ease
most effectively. This is not to condemn those doing it.
Heaney is drawing attention, by contrast, to the terrible
consequences of the failed potato crop in Ireland.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------