Seamus Heaney Diction

When choosing a poem, the reader is likely to be concerned with the diction of the poem. Diction is the choice of words that the author has chosen. The diction of a poem can make or break the reader’s ability to understand the poem, or to continue to read the poem after a few lines. A poem with a simple diction will keep the reader engaged while a difficult diction can frustrate the reader. For example, “When I consider how my Light is Spent and “Digging” diction is very differential. Diction of the poem effects the tone in various ways. The diction of the poem affects the tone by the play of words and their difficultly to understand. The tone is set in the poem by the author’s meaning, however when the diction is harder to understand the

The author chose to use words that the average person could effortlessly understand. Upon reading this poem my initial reaction was that the poem was easy to read and I too could share a similar story with the author. The initial reaction I had while reading the poem was that I too was sharing a memory with the man writing. Anyone could be writing at their desk and have a flashback to when they were younger, remembering significant events that occurred daily. The author put the poem into simple terms, while keeping the reader engaged and understanding the poem. The word choice made the poem’s tone calm and tranquil, almost like a daydream. If the poem had a harder word diction the tone could have easily shifted from calm and tranquil to almost distressed. “Digging” was meant for the reader to be easily understood that a man was sitting at his desk writing when he has flashbacks of his childhood with his dad and grandfather. The tone is easily understood because of the simpler less formal word choice. The diction is down to earth and the reader can understand what the writer is meaning for the reader to get out of the poem. There is no confusion with the tone and how it should interpret because of the simpler word choice that the author has