Read the poem given below and answer the questions (100 - 105) that follow :
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests: snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sings into gravelly ground.
My father, digging, I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills,
Where he was digging
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep.
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.'
‘. . . . . loving their cool hardness in our hands’. What is the speaker referring to the given line ?
Correct Answer :
the potatoes
Solution :
The correct answer is the potatoes.
Step-by-Step Explanation:
1. Analyze the lines of the poem:
In the given excerpt from Seamus Heaney's poem "Digging", the speaker describes watching his father work in the garden:
"He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep.
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands."
2. Identify the referent of "their":
The pronoun "their" directly refers back to the noun introduced in the preceding line: "new potatoes".
3. Conclusion:
Therefore, when the speaker mentions "loving their cool hardness in our hands", he is referring to the potatoes that they picked from the ground.
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