compare Digging by Seamus Heaney and Facing West From California shores

Student’s name
Instructor’s name
Course
Date
Figurative language used in the poems Digging and Facing west from California shores.
In this essay, I analyze the work of Seamus Heaney and Walt Whitman in the poems entitled Digging and Facing west from California shores respectively. In the poem digging, Heaney introduces us to his lineage, that is, his father and grandfather who were staunch farmers in their prime age. The speaker is very proud and respectful of their right work in farming; he admires what they did and the determination they put in place, which translated to quality results. Several years after their dismissal, Heaney still wishes to keep their legacy of hard work and determination alive but this time not following their path of using a spade to cultivate the land but using his pen as a tool to dig into writing, a career different from what his ancestors did. The poem Facing west from California shores has several meanings, but in this assignment, I will refer to it as a representation of the events that took place during the American history precisely the conversion of California to one of its states. The poem talks about how America after getting to the shores of California realizes that there is no more room for expansion left and this makes it stand in awe looking at the adjacent lands to answer if there are more opportunities left. Figurative language refers to the author’s ability to manipulate language used in a piece of work with the intention of making it more attractive and easy to understand for a reader.

In addition to the two works taking a free verse, the following stylistic devices are also present.
Personification, a style that refers to associating animals and non-living things with human characteristics is present in the two poems. In Whitman’s work, he personifies his character the United States of America when he says that the country is facing west from California shores. Facing is an act performed by human beings, but the author gives it to the country in his poem. Personification also appears in Heaney’s work when the author notes that the pen is resting in his hand, an act performed by human beings.
In the two poems, Juxtaposition, which is a stylistic device, concerned with the placing of things or a word having different meanings next to each other is present. For example in the poem, Facing west from California, the author places the new world that in this case represents the United States adjacent to the ancient landmass that has been around for decades. The author’s intention in doing this is to contrast the new world from the old one. Heaney juxtaposes his family’s hard work in the farm with his career as a writer where he brings out the degree of effort required for him to make it in his writing just as his family had done before.
Imagery is another stylistic device intensively used in the two poems. For instance, through the words such as Inquiring, tireless, seeking, unfound employed in Whitman’s poem one can understand that the author is talking about a journey in progress where the person taking the journey is in search of something yet to be found. The phrase circle almost circled in the same poem notifies us that the trip is ending. In Heaney’s work, the phrase such as gravelly used in explaining the kind of ground that the shovel sunk into helps us to visualize how difficult the job was. As observed from the examples above, use of imagery in the two poems helps us to understand and interpret the works more vividly and in the same manner that the author wished.
Repetition is another figurative device intensively used in the two poems. Whitman repeats the words unfound and wandered. The reason behind this repetition is to emphasize how America’s journey came to a halt without having found what it was looking for something which makes the country very unpleased that it starts wondering what lies on the other side. In his poem, Heaney severally repeats the word was digging with the intention of telling us how important this action was in his lineage and how much he is willing to respect his ancestors’ memory by continuing to use the same action in his career.
The use of metaphor is another stylistic device used in the two poems. When the character in Whitman’s poem asks about the whereabouts of what he started for so long and why he is yet to find it, this represents a metaphor of the disappointment faced by the United States after realizing that it cannot expand to the west anymore. In the same poem, the character who is the United States of America look out to the neighboring lands calling them the house of maternity, a metaphor for new opportunities that these properties possess. Heaney uses the metaphor of his father and grandfather’s work where they used the spade to cultivate the farm as a representation of his work in writing which he uses a pen as a tool (Clare A, 177). The words digging and root in the same poem is a metaphor of the authors’ intention to continue with his father and grandfather’s legacy by writing more of his people’s culture and traditions.
The use of paradox is another stylistic device that manifests itself in the two poems. For example in Whiteman’s work, the United States of America is on a journey trying to find something that it does not know what it is which creates contradiction because one cannot be eager to find what he/she does not know. In the same poem, the author describes the character, as been a child and at the same time old which is not possible. In the poem Digging by Heaney, the pen is described as gently resting waiting to write, but the author continues to note that the pen is snuggling as a gun, a remark that portrays contradiction because it is not possible for something to is resting and at the same time snuggling as a weapon.
The use of irony is another stylistic device employed by the two poets. For example, Whitman tells us that the United States of America the character in the poem came back from the journey joyous and happy. The statement presents irony because from the poem’s plot we can feel the urge that this country had towards discovering new opportunities which mean that it is disappointed on its way back from the journey. Heaney employs the use of irony when he says that he does not have a spade to follow the works of his father and grandfather. Throughout the poem, the speaker tells us of the mightiness of the shovel, a tool used by his father and grandfather which he likens to his pen. It is, therefore, an irony for him to say that he does not have the tool yet he is holding the pen in his hands ready to do the digging.
Work cited
Lees, Clare A. “In Three Poems: Medieval and Modern in Seamus Heaney, Maureen Duffy and Colette Bryce.” American/Medieval: Nature and Mind in Cultural Transfer (2016): 177.