Digging

I really enjoyed the direction that this poem took. I myself am not a big fan of tradition, so to read that the speaker took a different path than "[s]tooping in rhythm through potato drills" like his father and grandfather had done, seems like good choice to me (line 8). Most think that breaking tradition is bad, but I believe breaking tradition can be for the better. The speaker seems to yet be envious of his forefathers. He states, "Through living roots awaken in my head. But I've no spade to follow men like them"(lines 27-28). So maybe he didn't follow in their footsteps, but now he can follow his own path using his pen to "dig".