AtaPotatoDigging.pptVIP

At a Potato Digging by Seamus Heaney Context The poem deals with two different potato harvests. One is the harvest from the present day (written in the ’60s) that goes successfully and which delivers a rich crop. The second potato harvest looks back to the famine of 1845 when the crop failed and many people starved. Whilst the famine is no longer a threat, its ongoing fear remains and this can be seen in the use of religious language throughout the poem. 钢筋调直切断机 钢筋切断机 抹光机 Potato Famine The Irish Potato Famine occurred in Ireland in 1845-49 when the potato crop failed in successive years. As a direct consequence of the famine, Irelands population of almost 8,400,000 in 1844 had fallen to 6,600,000 by 1851. About 1,100,000 people died from starvation or from typhus and other famine-related diseases. The number of Irish who emigrated during the famine may have reached 1.5 million. IA mechanical digger wrecks the drill,Spins up a dark shower of roots and mould. Labourers swarm in behind, stoop to fillWicker creels. Fingers go dead in the cold.  Like crows attacking crow-black fields, they stretchA higgledy line from hedge to headland; Some pairs keep breaking ragged ranks to fetchA full creel to the pit and straighten, stand Tall for a moment but soon stumble backTo fish a new load from the crumbled surf. Heads bow, trucks bend, hands fumble towards the blackMother. Processional stooping through the turf Turns work to ritual. CenturiesOf fear and homage to the famine godToughen the muscles behind their humbled knees, Make a seasonal altar of the sod.  IIFlint-white, purple. They lie scatteredLike inflated pebbles. Nativeto the blank hutch of claywhere the halved seed shot and clottedthese knobbed and slit-eyed tubers seemthe petrified hearts of drills. Splitby the spade, they show white as cream.  Good smells exude from crumbled earth. The rough bark of humus eruptsknots of potatoes (a clean birth) whose solid feel, whose wet inside