The Squat Pen Rests

In the poem, "Digging," the speaker retraces his past generations and admires his ancestors' hard work in the field, but feels ashamed that he isn't following their footsteps. Symbolization is a powerful tool to bury compelling and meaningful content into writing. The author of "Digging" takes advantage of symbols to depict the speaker's internal conflict of being different from his family; Seamus Heaney uses symbols to illustrate the struggle between individuality and family obligation, pen and spade.