The poem is written in the first-person perspective as the “I” in the poem represents the author himself and he expresses a confessional and self-deprecated tone throughout while showing admiration for his father and grandfather by making them sound more superior than he is . The tone of the speaker suggests that although he admires his family tradition of digging and farming but and has not got the ability to match up and “[he has] no spade to follow men like” his father and grandfather. Heaney's use of words to describe himself such as “squat” and “sloppily”and confessing “But I have no spades to follow men like them” puts a further emphasize on the idea of self-deprecation.
Following and breaking free from family heritage are the themes for this poem. The authors portrays a comparison between his father and grandfather to himself. Although the author holds a admiration towards his family tradition which is potato farming symbolized by his father and grandfather but at the same time he wishes to break free from the chain of family heritage. The author wishes to write as good with a pen as his father and grandfathers can dig with a spade.
Heaney's use of auditory imagery and onomatopoeia, word choices and allusion to a actual place all contributed to convey the author's admiration towards his father and grandfather. The author describes that his “grandfather could cut more turf in a day than any other man on Toner's bog” and that his father is equally good because he “could handle a spade. Just like his old man”. The literal description coveys it's meaning of his father and granfather abilities already while an allusion to an actual place adds a sense of reality to it. “Straining”, “digging”, “rooted”, “buried”, “nicking”, “slicing” and “heaving” all suggest that his father and grandfathers to be hardworking. Examples of onomatopoeia used in the portrayal like “rasping”, “stooping”, “digging”, “nicking”, “slicing”, “heaving”, “squelch and slap”, “curt cuts” strengthen to convey the feeling hard work.
The poem had a consonance impact on me because I have the same attitude towards my parents as the author. My father did not go to college yet he worked shedding blood and sweat to reach where the point of success he has today. Where he has enough fortune to provide me with a good education. He is an entrepreneur thus he had been teaching me concepts of economy and wishes me to go into the fields of finance. Though I respect his work and his teaching but i know I don't have the same attitude and abilities towards working as him. Therefore, I want to pave my on path down the road of life and going into the fields of arts since they are my biggest interests or possibly combing arts and the concepts of economy and enter the advertising industry.
