Farming as a Poetic Process: A Study in Robert Frost’s “After Apple-picking” and Seamus Heaney’s “Digging”

Abstract

Every poet has his own conception of writing poetry. Ifwe trace back the history of poetry, we can see that poetshave been taking many roles and assigned themselvesdifferent missions. Sometimes they are introduced asteachers, moralists, educationalists and guardians ofsociety. On other occasions, they appear as philosophersand prophets who are concerned with moral values andthe good of society. While in some other times they actlike leaders and politicians who take the responsibility toguide people to better future. As far as this paper isconcerned, the poet appears as a farmer who plants andreaps ideas for his poems. Though Robert Frost andSeamus Heaney belong to different nations and cultures,they meet in this particular area. They are classified bycritics as nature poets; as they reflect the ruralexperiences in their poetry. In some of their poetic worksthey tried to link poetry to farming, and the reader can seemuch of this by reading their poems.For Robert Frost, poetry is life and throughout hisliterary career he tried his best to link poetry to life andlife to poetry. He sees poetry as a combination betweenmind and emotion. Metaphorically, writing poetry is amarriage between mind and emotion. He once said:If poetry isn’t understanding all, the whole world,then it isn’tworth anything. Young poets forget that poetry mustincludethe mind as well as the emotions. Too many poets deludethemselves by thinking the mind is dangerous and must be leftout. Well, the mind is dangerous and must be left in.1This combination between mind and emotion isdeepened, fathomlessly, in his own mind. According toFrost’s conception of poetry, poetry must serve twopurposes; delight and wisdom. He sees the poem in thisway “A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom