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.

The poetic devices in line 2 and line 4 are :

Correct Answer: simile and alliteration

Let us analyze the poetic devices present in Line 2 and Line 4 of the given poem excerpt ("Digging" by Seamus Heaney):

1. Line 2: "The squat pen rests: snug as a gun."
In this line, the pen is directly compared to a gun using the word "as" ("snug as a gun"). A direct comparison between two different things using words such as "like" or "as" is called a simile.

2. Line 4: "When the spade sings into gravelly ground."
In this line, there is a repetition of the initial consonant sound /g/ in the phrase "gravelly ground". The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words is known as alliteration. (Additionally, "spade sings" shows personification/alliteration, reinforcing the sound imagery).

Therefore, the poetic devices in line 2 and line 4 are simile and alliteration respectively.