Seamus Heaney's "Digging"

I enjoyed Seamus Heaney's "Digging". The imagery in the poem was nice. I particularly liked the second line "The squat pen rests; snug as a gun" (686). I liked this line because comparing a pen to a gun is an interesting concept I guess in a way they are both weapons that can kill people. Literally if you are a ninja and no how to kill a person with a pen, or as in the pen can kill of characters in a story. He is basically stating the pen is my weapon of choice in this world. His father and grandfather were good at digging in the garden in order to grow and harvest potatoes. Their weapon of choice was a spade. In the end he says "but I've no spade to follow men like them" meaning he isn't built strong to dig in the garden with the spade, and he won't be a farmer as his career (687). Instead he will make his living using a pen.