Analysis of Word Choice in Poems “Digging” and “The Writer”

The two poems that I have chosen to discuss that have similar subjects are “Digging” by Seamus Heaney and “The Writer” by Richard Wilbur. Before I begin to discuss these two poems, I would first of all talk about diction. Diction in literature can simply be defined as an author’s style of writing that can be determined by the authors choice of words. Diction plays an important role in how good or bad ones writing is because it has a huge impact on the tone — authors attitude towards a piece of work, and an authors tone helps readers to determine the authors mood as they read, and tone also affects how readers perceive characters.

The first Poem which is “Digging” by Heaney Seamus is all about a man who I have perceived to be somewhat a writer due to the choice of words used by the author in lines 1 and 2 “Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. ” I perceived this character to be a writer because pens are usually referred to as guns because of how much power it holds in terms of being a writer. This man or writer is reflecting on his family history on how his grandfather and father are both potato diggers, and how potato digging has been on for generations, and how even though they are just mere potato diggers, he admires them, but at the same time wants to do something else. This poem is also being told from a son’s perspective. “The Writer” on the other hand is about a father who is a writer recounting memories about a time when he listened to their daughter writing a story, and it is being told from a father’s perspective. The main subject of both poems is writing, and both poems seem to view writing as a laborious and tasking process that will continuously have to be worked on in order to succeed. Both poems as well as having the same subject also uses a lot of imagery to help readers to clearly see where both speakers are coming from. Wilbur uses a lot of imagery to describe the room of the daughter all through the poem, and then in lines 16 to 30, the speaker describes a bird that got stuck in his daughters room to describe her struggle with writing. Seamus on the other hand used imagery to describe what the speaker is seeing as he is trying to write. In stanza 1, the author begins with the image of a pen in the speakers hand, then stanza 3, the speaker describes how hard his father is working and then the speaker proceeds to having a flashback of his father doing the exact same thing 20 years ago, and by doing this, the author creates a vivid image of the past because the author described the smell of dirt as well as the ground texture, cold air, and the sound of the shovel. The tone of “The Writer” can be seen to be one of compassion and empathy because the fact that the father (speaker) was a writer, he can feel what his daughter feels at the very moment when she begins to struggle with her writing. In lines 7 to 15, and then in lines 16 to 30. On the other hand, the tone of “Digging” can be seen as that of confusion and determination because although the speaker admires the hard work being done by his father and grandfather, he isn't easily persuaded to become a farmer like them, and he doesn't want to carry on the ‘legacy’, and I say this because all through the poem, the speaker seems to be exploring his options by observing his father working all through the day, and in the last stanza “Between my finger…I’ll dig with it. ” finally shows that the speaker has finally come to a conclusion and is finally going to follow his dreams on becoming a writer.

In conclusion, although both poems have the same subject which of course is writing, “Digging” by Heaney Seamus, and “The Writer” by Richard Wilbur both show completely different attitudes towards the subject. The speaker in “The Writer” is very happy about his daughter’s decision on being a writer, and he is very proud of her, and he hopes that she is able to overcome every obstacle that she faces as being a writer, because writing can be very tasking and demanding. “Digging” focuses on a child who wants to pursue a different career choice rather than being a potato farmer like his grandfather, but is very confused because he doesn't want to disappoint anyone in the family, but at the end finally decides to carry out what they refer to as their own form of digging which is writing which in this context means that the pen is this hoe/shovel, and hew will dig with it.