At a Potato Digging.
At a Potato Digging by Seamus Heaney describes the simple process of potato digging and the suffering of the people due to the contamination of the crop. Through this Heaney is able to illustrate the dependence of the people upon the potato crop and how it serves to be both a life giving and life-taking element. By effective usage of lexis, figurative language, and structure the poem explores the endless quality and extremity of this dependence.
Stanza five continues to look at the life-giving element of the poem, which over casts the little bit of life giving element, and the use of figurative language is continued. This stanza starts off with “flint-white, purple.” The colours white and purple are often associated with dead or damaged things, potatoes often go purple when they have been damaged, also the usage of the two colours is a typical characteristic oh Heaney’s work. "They lie scattered like inflated pebbles" the simile used here gives a very impressive image of the potato, and the characteristics of just ‘lying’ gives a human like living impression. The next line “Native to the …” These next lines show the potato in its natural surroundings with the clump of mud or clay that has stuck to it once it has been dug up.
