Digging
Seamus Heaney · Non-African poetry — Ireland, 1966 · WAEC set text 2026–2030
What it is doing
The poet sits with a pen. Outside, his father is digging, as his grandfather dug turf. Heaney will not take the spade. The pen will have to be his tool.
What to listen for
Sound of the spade (“nicking and slicing”); smell of potato mould; the pen “snug as a gun”; three generations; ending on “I’ll dig with it.”
In the exam
Heritage and vocation. The gun simile is not violence — it is fit and purpose. Close on the last line.