The poem moves from abstract to physical as the fox approaches. Find two sentences or phrases where the syntax becomes more concrete and identify what grammatical feature marks that shift — is it the verb type, the tense, the active/passive construction, or something else?
Find two examples of enjambment. For each one, explain what the suspended word or phrase means on its own at the end of the line, and how that meaning changes or completes when the next line arrives.
EXERCISE 2 — Digging
Find one moment of parataxis and one of hypotaxis. For each, explain what syntactic choice Heaney makes and what effect it creates in that specific moment of the poem.
The poem moves between present and past tense. Find one moment where the tense shifts and explain what that grammatical shift contributes to the poem's meaning.