Scaffolding

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1966

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Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Further Reading & Resources

Related Poems

“Digging“ by Seamus Heaney (1966)

“Digging” appeared alongside “Scaffolding” in Heaney’s first published poetry collection, Death of a Naturalist, which appeared in print in 1966. The poem conveys the recollection of family across generations. The speaker of the poem sits writing while he watches his father dig in the garden with a spade just outside his window. He reminisces about how his grandfather used to dig in the same manner, and enters this family tradition by associating his writing with a form of “digging.” Just as “Scaffolding” is focused on the construction of relationships, Heaney’s poem “Digging” likewise reflects on human connection.

“Mid-Term Break“ by Seamus Heaney (1966)

Also published in Heaney’s 1966 collection Death of a Naturalist, “Mid-Term Break” offers a similar effect as “Scaffolding” by taking readers’ initial expectations about a topic and subverting them. While readers may initially assume that a break from school would be something celebratory and joyous, quite the reverse is true for this poem’s speaker. Readers follow the speaker as he is picked up from college and driven home by neighbors to meet his mourning family. At the poem’s conclusion, the speaker goes upstairs to see his deceased sibling “[w]earing a poppy bruise on his left temple / He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot” (Lines 19-20). In this poem, the speaker and his family mourn the loss of human connection, of one of their own.

“Follower” by Seamus Heaney (1966)

As with “Digging,” “Follower” centers on the relationship between the speaker of the poem and their father. The speaker reflects how they used to follow their father as he plowed the fields, stumbling after him and sometimes riding on his shoulders. Now, however, the speaker notes how “[i]t is my father who keeps stumbling / Behind me, and will not go away” (Lines 23-24). The memory and expectations of the father seem to continue to haunt the poem’s speaker.

Further Literary Resources

"Heaney and Education" by Sharon Jones. (2017).

Educational lecturer Dr. Sharon Jones focuses on Heaney’s role as an educator. Though Heaney is renowned for his poetry, he was also a devoted educator and served various roles in academia from lecturer to department head. Jones describes how Heaney’s teaching philosophy included “learning as a journey, learning through play, and learning as construction.” Jones aims to show how Heaney’s theory of education is reflected in his poetry, demonstrating “that Heaney’s writing reflects an informed understanding of children and of learning peculiar to the mind of a great teacher.”

"Seamus Heaney and the Cliches of Public Talk" by Florian Gargaillo. (2018).

Gargaillo analyzes the relationship between Heaney’s poetry and his use of cliches as poetic devices. To contextualize Heaney’s view of using cliches in poetry, Gargaillo delineates the views various other authors—from Jonathan Swift to Donald Davie—have had on cliches in poetry. Gargaillo describes how Heaney’s “later poetry is marked by a warm defense of cliches” and the notion that this “change no doubt stems from a shift in Heaney’s relation to politics.”

"‘Gilded Gravel in the Bowl’: Ireland’s cuisine and culinary heritage in the poetry of Seamus Heaney" by Anke Klitzing. (2021).

Klitzing argues that one of the features of Heaney’s poetry labeling it as distinctly Irish is the various allusions to food, cooking methods, and agricultural methods. His poetry provides innate education on Irish culture. Klitzing proposes a “gastrocritical” reading of Heaney’s work. She analyzes his poetry from 1966 through 2010 to highlight the historical, socioeconomic, and cultural implications provided by Heaney’s references to foodstuffs and farming. Klitzing writes:

A gastrocritical reading of Heaney’s work [...] shows that the foodstuffs and culinary techniques featured in the poetry reflect historic and contemporary Irish cuisine and culture as explained by food-historical and folkloristic research, giving his work a particularly Irish cultural signature.