"Digging"

In the poem “Digging”, the narrator talks about his father and grandfather working hard in a potato field. I liked how when reading this poem you could actually envision them working hard in the fields. “When the spade sinks into the gravelly ground” (line 4) “The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft/Against the inside knee was levered firmly.” (lines 10 &11) The narrator seems to really admire his father and grandfather and respect all the hard work that they endured. Even though working in the potato fields seemed to be a "family" job, he will not be following in their footsteps. I think that reason is, because he saw the toll that the hard labor took on them (physically), and choose a different career path to follow instead. “But I’ve no spade to follow men like them/Between my finger and my thumb/The squat pen rests” (lines 28,29, & 30).