The poem "Digging" by Seamus Heaney describes the occupations of the poet's father and grandfather through vivid sensory descriptions. Heaney uses sight to depict himself holding a pen at a window, watching his father potato farming and grandfather spade digging. The descriptions allow the reader to visualize the precise cuts of potatoes and the grandfather's exhausted, sweaty face. The poem concludes with the unpleasant smell of molded potatoes and the squelching sound of a shovel in wet, soggy dirt. Through these sensory details, Heaney graphically represents the manual labor of farming performed by the men in his family.