PMc at a Potato Digging

8/3/2019 PMc at a Potato Digging

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At a Potato Digging

by Seamus Heaney


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Context

The poem deals with two different potatoharvests. One is the harvest from the presentday (written in the 60s) that goes successfullyand which delivers a rich crop.

The second potato harvest looks back to thefamine of 1845 when the crop failed and manypeople starved.

Whilst the famine is no longer a threat, itsongoing fear remains and this can be seen in theuse of religious language throughout the poem.


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Potato Famine

The Irish Potato Famine occurred in Ireland in1845-49 when the potato crop failed insuccessive years.

As a direct consequence of the famine, Ireland'spopulation of almost 8,400,000 in 1844 hadfallen to 6,600,000 by 1851.

About 1,100,000 people died from starvation or

from typhus and other famine-related diseases. The number of Irish who emigrated during the

famine may have reached 1.5 million.


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AT A POTATO DIGGINGI

A mechanical digger wrecks the drill,Spins up a dark sh ower of roots and mould.

Labourers swarm in behind, stoop to fillWicker creels. Fingers go dead in the cold.

Like crows attacking crow-black fields, they stretch

A higgledy line from hedge to headland;Some pairs keep breaking ragged ranks to fetch

A full creel to the pit and straighten, stand

Tall for a moment but soon stumble backTo fish a new load from the crumbled surf.

Heads bow, trucks bend, hands fumble towards the black

Mother. Processional stooping through the turf

Turns work to ritual. CenturiesOf fear and homage to the famine god

Toughen the muscles behind their humbled knees,

Make a seasonal altar of the sod.

II

Flint-white, purple. They lie scatteredLike inflated pebbles. Native

to the blank hutch of clay

where the halved seed shot and clottedthese knobbed and slit-eyed tubers seem

the petrified hearts of drills. Split

by the spade, they show white as cream.

Good smells exude from crumbled earth.The rough bark of humus eruptsknots of potatoes (a clean birth)

whose solid feel, whose wet insidepromises taste of ground and root.

To be piled in pits; live skulls, blind-eyed.

IIILive skulls, bli nd-eyed, balanced on

wild higgledy skeletons

scoured the land in 'forty-five,'wolfed the blighted root and died.

The new potato, sound as stone,putrified when it had lain

three days in the long clay pit.

Millions rotted along with it.

Mouths tightened in, eyes died hard,faces chilled to a plucked bird.

In a million wicker huts

beaks of famine snipped at guts.

A people hungering from birth,

grubbing, like plants, in the bitch earth,were grafted with a great sorrow.

Hope rotted like a marrow.

Stinking potatoes fouled the land,

pits turned pus in filthy mounds:and where potato diggers are

you still smell the running sore.

IVUnder a white flotilla of gulls

The rhythm deadens, the workers stop.White bread and tea in bright canfuls

Are served for lunch. Dead-beat, they flop

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.

The poem begins with

Heaney describing

workers in a potato field

in Ireland. They follow

a machine that turns upthe crop and they put

these into a basket and

then store them.

The second section of

the poem involves the

healthy potatoes being

described.

The third section writes

about the famine of the

past. Fungus destroyed

the entire cropof potatoes and this

happened for three

consecutive years.

In the final section of the

poem, Heaney returns tothe first section of the

poem

Ireland in the 1960s at

lunchtime. The workers

sit happily, with food to

eat.


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AT A POTATO DIGGINGI

A mechanical digger wrecks the drill,Spins up a dark sh ower of roots and mould.

Labourers swarm in behind, stoop to fillWicker creels. Fingers go dead in the cold.


A higgledy line from hedge to headland;Some pairs keep breaking ragged ranks to fetch

A full creel to the pit and straighten, stand

Tall for a moment but soon stumble backTo fish a new load from the crumbled surf.



Turns work to ritual. CenturiesOf fear and homage to the famine god



II

Flint-white, purple. They lie scatteredLike inflated pebbles. Native


where the halved seed shot and clottedthese knobbed and slit-eyed tubers seem

the petrified hearts of drills. Split

by the spade, they show white as cream.

Good smells exude from crumbled earth.The rough bark of humus eruptsknots of potatoes (a clean birth)



IIILive skulls, bli nd-eyed, balanced on


scoured the land in 'forty-five,'wolfed the blighted root and died.

The new potato, sound as stone,putrified when it had lain







grubbing, like plants, in the bitch earth,were grafted with a great sorrow.

Hope rotted like a marrow.


pits turned pus in filthy mounds:and where potato diggers are


IVUnder a white flotilla of gulls

The rhythm deadens, the workers stop.White bread and tea in bright canfuls

Are served for lunch. Dead-beat, they flop

Down in the ditch and take their fill,Thankfully breaking timeless fasts;



The first and last

sections have a loose

iambic metre and a

clear ABAB rhymescheme - which breaks

down only in the

poem's final line.

Why might Heaney do

this?

The second section has

fewer rhymes in an

irregular pattern. Lines and

sections run into each

other.

The third sectionuses rhyme in

pairs: AABB and so

on.


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I

A mechanical digger wrecks the drill,Spins up a dark shower of roots and mould.

Labourers swarm in behind, stoop to fill

Wicker creels. Fingers go dead in the cold.


A higgledy line from hedge to headland;

Some pairs keep breaking ragged ranks to fetchA full creel to the pit and straighten, stand

Tall for a moment but soon stumble back

To fish a new load from the crumbled surf.



Turns work to ritual. Centuries

Of fear and homage to the famine god



We now rely on

technology to dig

the land. Is this

natural?

Wreck the rows in which the potatoes are

planted. May also suggest the routine of

the work.

Could this also

have military

connotations?

Struggling to

live of the land.

Vivid image of

the power of

the machine

over the land.

Mans power

over nature?

Suggests the

vast number of

labourers

involved

stoop Might

this suggest

prostration as

well as theback

breaking

labour?

The work is

hard and

uncomfortable.

Why else might

Heaney have

chosen this

phrase?

Enjambment at this and other points in the poem suggest theunending nature of the work


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I















Links the people to

nature both as animals

and as a description of

the land.

Why crows?

Scavengers?

Birds of Death

Again the labour is referred to in

terms of a battle. Perhaps a battle

for survival?

The workers

could be seen

as soldiers in

the fight

Emphasises

the sheer

number of them

involved

A full basket of

potatoes to bestored

Proud of their

labours and

enjoying a shortbreak

The respite is

brief and they

stumble back to

work,emphasising the

exhausting

nature what they

do


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I















What is the effect of

this metaphor on

the reader?

Gives a strong

visual image of

the land after

the drills are

wrecked.

Does it suggest the skill

of the people?

Bowed in prayer?

Prostration?

Is this an almost

religious

experience?

Giver of life.

Protector.

Acknowledgement

of importance

Is this a pagan

God that they

fear?

Is Heaney

suggesting that

God forsook

them in the

famine?


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II

Flint-white, purple. They lie scattered

Like inflated pebbles. Native


where the halved seed shot and clotted

these knobbed and slit-eyed tubers seem

the petrified hearts of drills. Splitby the spade, they show white as cream.

Good smells exude from crumbled earth.

The rough bark of humus erupts

knots of potatoes (a clean birth)



The second

section has fewer

rhymes in an

irregular pattern,

perhaps

mimicking theirregular sizes and

shapes of the

potatoes

Heart of the land

Repeated image of death linked to

the potato across generations by

memories of the famine

Assonance and alliteration stress the

natural links between the potatoes and the

land

Each year the potato harvest can be an anxious

process, as the workers smell the potatoes and feel

them for firmness - making sure they are free of the

blight.

Images of death

abound once more

and these are

echoed in the next

stanza about the

famine

Potatoes piled asbodies once were


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III

Live skulls, blind-eyed, balanced on


scoured the land in 'forty-five,'

wolfed the blighted root and died.

The new potato, sound as stone,

putrified when it had lain







grubbing, like plants, in the bitch earth,

were grafted with a great sorrow.Hope rotted like a marrow.


pits turned pus in filthy mounds:

and where potato diggers are


Repeated image

but this time it is

starving people

who are skulls

and blind-eyed

balanced implies

the weakness of

people and their

skeletal hunger.

Higgledy people

reflect the higgledy

lines in which they

work now (section

1)

45 needs no year

date because the

event is such a

part of Irelands

social

consciousness They still ate the

bad potatoes but

couldnt surviveAnimal savagery

suggesting thehardness of the

times


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III



















The language is

incredibly negative

and harsh. Much

like the times they

are describing

Heaney describes

the false hope of asound new potato

which rots and dies

in the pitAmbiguous phrase,

the people rotted

along with the

potatoes and died


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III



















Vivid, visual account

of the physical effects

of the famine

wicker emphasises

the simplicity of their

lives but also linksback to their wicker

creels. Both are

devoid of potatoes

due to the famine

Snipping,metaphorical beaks of

hunger attack the guts

of the hungry.

Could this link back to

the images of crows

earlier on?

Life-long hunger and

misery is emphasised

here

The earth is not mother

but bitch now. Cruel

and forgiving (the famine

god?)Suggesting hard work

Marked with sorrow?


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III



















As the potatoes did

filthy mounds of

both potatoes but

also of the bodies

piled up.

(Remember, over 1

million people died

during the famine)

Last two lines return to

the present tense

you why has he used

the second person at

this point?

Does it suggest the

immediacy of the last

two lines- this is nowThe knowledge of the

famine is still an open

wound for the people of

Ireland


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IV

Under a white flotilla of gulls

The rhythm deadens, the workers stop.

White bread and tea in bright canfulsAre served for lunch. Dead-beat, they flop

Down in the ditch and take their fill,

Thankfully breaking timeless fasts;



flotilla maintains the military and

sea-faring images of the first section

but the crows of earlier are

contrasted now with the gulls

They take their tea-

break. No longer

reliant just on

potatoes for food

they do still make

their living form

digging them

Through the tiredness of a days

work but the image could be

likened to the weak falling of thefamished over a century earlier

Not in the pitanymore and no

longer hungry they

can take their fill

Why has Heaney

chosen the wordtimeless?

Compare the past

and present as

shown in the poem.

They still dont trust

the ground.

The religious imagery is repeated at the end as the

give offerings to appease the famine god

mentioned earlier.


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Comparisons

A Difficult Birth / The Field-Mouse Both poems look atthe natural world and the way in which it operates.

Inversnaid This poem takes delight in the natural world,

describing the beauty of the town of Inversnaid as it hasnot been touched by human hand.

Patrolling Barnegat In common with At a PotatoDigging, this poem enables the reader to understand thepower of the natural world and we appreciate the extent to

which it can have an impact on the lives of human beings.

What other poems and ideas can be used for comparison?


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Themes

Nature The poem deals with the natural world and thedifferent aspects of nature can be seen in the reference tothe earth as the black mother that gives life and also thebitch earth that is capable of inflicting great suffering.

Suffering The suffering of the people of Ireland isdescribed in detail in the poem and we understand theextent of the misery that was caused by the famine.

The Past Heaneys desire to make connectionsbetween the past and present is very important to the

poem a link is made between events more than acentury apart.


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Review

1. Once again digging is used symbolically by Heaney.Explain how.

2. How, in this poem, does Heaney connect past andpresent (think about language and images used)?

3. What view does the poem give of man's relationship withthe earth?

4. Does the poet really think of the earth as a bitch andfaithless?

5. Modern readers in the west may no longer have a senseof where our food comes from. How does this poemchallenge us not to take things for granted?

6. How does this poem explore ideas of religion, ritual andceremony?

Documents

PMc at a Potato Digging