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Picture2

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Picture1

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Differentiating tasks

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Differentiating tasks

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Differentiating tasks

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Exhibition

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Exhibition

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Digging

By Seamus Heaney

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 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 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, going down and down

For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mould, 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.

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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 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 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, going down and down

For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mould, 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.

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Digging by Seamus Heaney | Poetry Foundation

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In line with government guidelines, we now ask all visitors to wear a face covering when visiting the Seamus Heaney exhibition.
This exhibition is at the Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Centre at College Green - entrance via Westmoreland Street. For queries, please call 01 670 6153 or e-mail heaneyexhibition@nli.ie.

Visiting Seamus Heaney: Listen Now Again

You do not need to book a ticket/time slot. We are operating at a reduced capacity, it may be necessary to queue for a short period. Please follow the directions provided and observe social distancing guidelines.
Open Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm. Last admission is 3.30pm.
A partnership project between the NLI, the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Bank of Ireland, the exhibition draws on the National Library's extensive archive of Heaney documents, and features Heaney's original manuscripts as well as letters, unpublished works, diary entries, photographs, note books, and multi-media recordings.

This is the first exhibition to be housed in the new Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Centre within Bank of Ireland's College Green complex. Curated by Professor Geraldine Higgins, Director of Irish Studies at Emory University, and designed by Ralph Appelbaum and Associates, the exhibition takes the visitor on a multi-sensory journey from Heaney's origins through his remarkable poetic career.

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In line with government guidelines, we now ask all visitors to wear a face covering when visiting the Seamus Heaney exhibition. This exhibition is at the Bank of Ireland Cultural and Heritage Centre at College Green - entrance via Westmoreland Street. For queries, please call 01 670 6153 or e-mail heaneyexhibition@nli.ie.