A Comparison of Digging by Seamus Heaney and The Thought Fox by Ted Hughes - Essay Example

A Comparison of the Poems ‘Digging’ by Seamus Heaney (1966) and ‘The Thought Fox’ by Ted Hughes (1957) Examination of these poems has provided much evidence of similarities, which, given the apparently different subject matter, suggested by the titles, was quite surprising. Both involve the theme of nature and the poet’s relationship with it, each with a different emphasis, but the voice, tone, form, language and imagery combine to create an imaginative and intimate insight into the minds of the poets. The poems share a powerful depiction of the poet in action, the minute and vital tasks of inspirational writing, allowing the reader to participate in the act; immediate thoughts and experiences are shown in how they relate to the final composition, using similar poetic devices. To illustrate these findings, Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Digging’ will first be discussed, then compared with Hughes’ ‘The Thought Fox’. Despite the differences, there is little doubt that both poems, from title to completion, are a metaphorical representation of the poets in the process of creation. ‘Digging’ Seamus Heaney (1966). This poem opens with a surprisingly stark and aggressive image, where the juxtaposition of the pen and the gun tends to shock. It would seem, that for the poet, both fit well. “Between my finger and my thumb” (l. 1). By setting those first two lines apart, then repeating them at the end, Heaney has at once established his distance and difference from that ‘digging’ he goes on to depict. The speaker is the omniscient narrator, his voice at times conversational and intimate, always pensive and ultimately triumphant. He leads the reader at once to the auditory and visual sensations experienced, as he seems to look out of the window at his father, the digger. The rhythm of those movements is expressed with enjambment and caesura thus: “Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds Bends low, comes up twenty years away Stooping in rhythm through potato-drills Where he was digging.” (l. 6 – 9) It is that pause, and the words after “low” that remove us from the present, and suggest both past and future for his father and himself. With free, irregular verse, we are moved back and forward in time and space, the word ‘rhythm’ suggesting a pattern established for generations. Heaney creates, with visual and auditory imagery, the powerful strength and skill his father uses in pursuit of his farming role. He links back to his childhood joy of “new” potatoes” “loving their cool hardness in our hands” (l. 14), bringing the vivid, tactile experience to life. His elegiac verse form expresses his feelings for his father, not yet dead, and he moves further back in time and space to include his grandfather. The poet places himself in juxtaposition to his ancestry, while acknowledging his love and respect for the power of their creativity and labor, which has allowed him to pursue a different path. He is in the present, but takes us to his past with visual, auditory and olfactory imagery. “My grandfather could cut more turf in a day Than any other man on Toner’s bog” (l. 17-18) and “The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap Of soggy peat.” (l. 25-26) The alliteration and onomatopoeia combine to bring the power and effort of the diggers to life, and show us time and place in rural Ireland. He has dismissed such labor for himself, made obvious in the words: “But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.” (l. 28). There is a natural Irish cadence in the sentence structure of that line, which puts in place the pensive, conversational quality and the tone seems triumphant too. Heaney brings alive a way of life he has abandoned in order to pursue his poetic and literary vision. The digging is a metaphorical reference to clearing a space in the mind for new ideas, for creative forces to blossom and for the poetry to grow. While acknowledging that he will never follow the course of his ancestry, the poem praises their past and future contribution to his chosen way. The aspects of nature are reflected in the ideas of soil and turf, the smells, feelings and sounds evoked, but in coming full circle, is reader is aware of where this poet is going. As it began, the poem ends with the pen/gun image, as Heaney opens the door to his future. “Between my finer and my thumb The squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it.” (1. 29-31) From spade to knee, boot to thumb, the “living roots awaken in my head” (l. 27), showing in that metaphor, that he understands the significance of his forefathers’ contribution that enables him to go forward, for without them he could never dig/create. His voice is reflective, aware and grateful for the labor of these men he loves. So tone, voice, language and imagery have combined to express the concept that ‘Digging’ is a metaphor for the creative process he must go through to achieve completion. Ted Hughes portrays these same processes, with some differences, but again, with the theme of nature, approaching from a more immediate viewpoint, a micro rather than macro stance. Ted Hughes’ ‘The Thought Fox’ (1957), is a poem exposing the processes by which the poet creates, and allows us to see that in action. Like Heaney, Hughes, the speaker, is the omniscient narrator, with an intimate, pensive and conversational tone, rich with sensory imagery and vibrant rhythm. The auditory, visual and olfactory imagery is more intense, and the alliteration creates a startling impact, aided by the caesura, after ‘fox’ “Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox It enters the dark hole of the head.” (l. 21-22) Both Hughes and Heaney open with images that place them firmly in the context of the act of creation, of cognitive processes, of being alone and set apart. In contrast to Heaney, Hughes remains alone, and refers to his work more overtly, while Heaney’s pen/gun simile alludes, though they both speak of fingers. It is interesting to note, in the opening stanza, how the “blank page” is given a life, “Something else is alive Beside the clock’s loneliness And this blank page where my fingers move.” (l. 2-4) Hughes follows a more regular verse form, with six stanzas of four lines, with eye rhymes and half rhymes, “snow” and “now”, “darkness” and “loneliness” and using assonance in “hollow”, “now”, “now” to create not just rhyme but to attach sound to rhythm. As Heaney has done with the images of the father and grandfather digging and cutting turf, so too does Hughes with the movement of the fox. But there is a more intimate, secretive sensation to Hughes’ work, as his fox comes alive before his and the reader’s eyes. This is one of the biggest contrasts, for Heaney is moving back and forth through time and space, linking himself to the human elements of his history that have influenced his creativity; Hughes is totally immersed in the natural world and an animal believed to be secretive, sly and elusive. ‘Digging’ portrays connections to history, family and other people, while ‘The Thought Fox’ suggests a man alone, whose creativity has to be hunted and caught, and if won, comes as a shock. This aloneness is embodied in the word ‘loneliness’ itself and the surroundings described. “Through the window I see no star;” (l. 5) and “Is entering the loneliness” (l. 8) As the fox moves, the rhythm alters, totally reflecting its movements, in a dark, cold and lonely night. This is where visual and tactile imagery combine to create excitement, stealth and tension. “Cold, delicately as the dark snow A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf; Two eyes serve a moment. That now And again now, and now, and now Sets neat prints into the snow Between trees….” (l. 9-14) The enjambment and caesura give the rhythm a quiet, but staccato force that matches the fox’s action, and the images of nose, twig and eyes bring together animal and nature in shape, movement and feeling. As with Heaney, the movement, effort and progress is depicted in spare, simple but evocative language. In contrast, Hughes creates a mounting tension, as the fox grows bolder, its closeness expressed by “Across clearings, an eye, A widening deepening greenness,” (l. 17-18) The vivid color, together with the physical feeling of being watched, contains an ambiguity; we could be looking into the clear green eyes of the fox, or the green “clearings” of the earlier line. The space, time, object and subject combine to define the moment and create a tense but beautiful image of animal, man and nature as one. The poet’s voice is almost joyful now, an emotion not present in Heaney’s more people-centered poem. However, both poets portray how their experiences impact on their creativity. The use of nature in the language and imagery is another difference. Heaney links nature to his childhood, family livelihood, and lifestyle, and how it has supported him and them, while he distances himself from it. Hughes, in contrast, seems at one with all aspects of natural phenomena, from the “dark snow” (a juxtaposition of color that enhances the atmosphere), to “Of a body that is bold to come” (l.16), and to the personification of the fox in “Coming about its own business.” (l. 20) . There is that immediacy, the build up of tension, the final exposition that is now so powerfully presented in “Digging”. The natural world is more intimately and minutely observed, so the poet, at one with the animal and its progress, is totally centered on the here and now. In contrast, Heaney ends with the allusion of having looked back, he will move forward and away from the natural forces of his earlier life. Hughes means to stay with it, his love for what he experiences hold him in thrall. So it comes as a surprise, when at the end of the poem, the fox is the metaphorical representation of the poet’s creative thoughts – “It enters the dark hold of the head.” (l. 22). It does not matter to him that he is still alone, his surroundings unchanged, “The window is starless still; the clock ticks, The page is printed.” (l. 23-24) There is a voice of quiet triumph here, as he acknowledges the work of the thought fox. Again, the ambiguity gives further power to this ending, for did he create the poem through observing the progress of a fox on a cold, dark midnight, or was it a metaphorical force that allowed thoughts to enter his head and find creativity? In contrast to Heaney, whose ending is gentle, with a resolution to go forward “I’ll dig with it”, taking from his past, that which will enhance his future, Hughes’ ending contains an image of violent enlightenment that must occur before the satisfaction of the completed work. “The page is printed.” (l. 24) As mentioned earlier, the alliteration of the “sudden sharp hot stink of fox”, helps to denote an invasive struggle, alluding to pain and possible danger, something unpleasant. Given that smell is the most primitive and intimate of senses, this imagery adds to the idea of close conflict between man and animal, despite the oneness the poet also portrays. “The dark hole of the head” (l. 22) forms yet another allusion to violence, conjuring up a bullet hole; or it may be metaphorically interpreted as a mind empty of thought until the thought fox forces its way in. Whichever idea this evokes, the poet has finished what he wanted to do. In the final analysis, the question remains as to whether Hughes created the poem from his observations of nature, or did elements of nature create the poem, with him as medium? No such doubts rests in Heaney’s poem, he has told us where his work came from, how nature informed it, and that he will go forth from there. There appeared to be more similarities than differences, from the voice, tone imagery and language, to the concept of nature and its impact on the writers. While form, rhyme and rhythms differ, both used poetic devices such as alliteration, assonance, enjambment, caesura and varied rhyme schemes to drive the narrative forward and to achieve their purpose. Heaney has painted a wide canvas of past, present and future, accepting and depicting his how history and his love of family, while finally distancing himself from that way of life. Hughes has given us nature in microcosm, moments of time where he exists as one which what he is observing, experiencing and sharing. For Hughes, nature and all its minute occurrences are the inspirations that give him the sustenance his imagination needs in order to create. For Heaney, that sustenance has a more physical and practical connotation, which nevertheless he acknowledges as inspirational. The word ‘digging’ is the metaphor for searching for creativity and links his past, present and future. Hughes lives in the moment, leaving himself open to ‘attack’ from any natural source, seeing this as vital to his art and his purpose. There is little doubt that from title to completion, these works, despite any differences, are metaphorical representations of the poets’ creative processes. The reader has been allowed to share this process in depth, and can experience with the poets, the triumphant feeling of completion and achievement. Both poems move in a circle, ending with the repetition of words and images that place us firmly into the picture, the feelings and the mental efforts of the poets. The theme of nature has been extended beyond boundaries or mundane interpretation, provoking new insights, thoughts and emotions, which is after all, the purpose of good or great poetry, Hughes and Heaney, with their individual poetic styles and skills, have succeeded in masterful achievement of that purpose. Works Cited The Broadview Anthology of British Literature – The Twentieth Century and Beyond – Volume 6. Broadview Press, Canada, 2006. (pp. 766 and 820) Read More