“Digging“ by Seamus Heaney (1966)

“Digging” appeared alongside “Scaffolding” in Heaney’s first published poetry collection, Death of a Naturalist, which appeared in print in 1966. The poem conveys the recollection of family across generations. The speaker of the poem sits writing while he watches his father dig in the garden with a spade just outside his window. He reminisces about how his grandfather used to dig in the same manner, and enters this family tradition by associating his writing with a form of “digging.” Just as “Scaffolding” is focused on the construction of relationships, Heaney’s poem “Digging” likewise reflects on human connection.

“Mid-Term Break“ by Seamus Heaney (1966)

Also published in Heaney’s 1966 collection Death of a Naturalist, “Mid-Term Break” offers a similar effect as “Scaffolding” by taking readers’ initial expectations about a topic and subverting them. While readers may initially assume that a break from school would be something celebratory and joyous, quite the reverse is true for this poem’s speaker. Readers follow the speaker as he is picked up from college and driven home by neighbors to meet his mourning family. At the poem’s conclusion, the speaker goes upstairs to see his deceased sibling “[w]earing a poppy bruise on his left temple / He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot” (Lines 19-20).