Are you digging on my grave?

                                                                                     

Poem Text

“Ah, are you digging on my grave
   My loved one? — planting rue?”
— “No; yesterday he went to wed
One of the brightest wealth has bred.
‘It cannot hurt her now,’ he said,                     5
   ‘That I should not be true’.”

“Then who is digging on my grave?
   My nearest dearest kin?”
— “Ah, no; they sit and think, ‘What use!
What good will planting flowers produce?               10
No tendance of her mound can loose
   her spirit from Death’s gin’.”

“But someone digs upon my grave?
   My enemy? — prodding sly?”
“Nay; when she heard you had passed the Gate          15
That shuts on all flesh soon or late,
She thought you no more worth her hate,
   And cares not where you lie.”

“Then, who is digging on my grave?
  Say — since I have not guessed!”                      20
— “O it is I, my mistress dear,
Your little dog, who still lives near,
And much I hope my movements here
   Have not disturbed your rest?”
 

“Ah, yes! You dig upon my grave                      25
   Why flashed it not on me
that one true heart was left behind!
What feeling do we ever find
to equal among human kind
         a dog’s fidelity!”                                  30

“Mistress, I dug upon your grave
   to bury a bone, in case
I should be hungry near this spot
when passing on my daily trot.
I am sorry, but I quite forgot                         35
it was your resting place.”

Poem Summary

Lines 1-2

These first two lines of the poem present a certain mystery to the reader. Who is asking this question? Is it indeed a person in the grave, or is it a person imagining an experience that might happen after they die? This mystery helps to draw the reader into the poem, though we will soon understand that the speaker is indeed a woman who is dead and buried. Hardy will continue to make use of an anonymous voice in the poem, however, when he introduces the second character in the work.

These lines also suggest some underlying elements that can help us to better understand the situation. The reference to the “rue” being planted by the woman’s loved one seems an important detail. The word rue has two essential meanings and both can be applied to the poem. First, rue means sorrow or regret, so the woman might be indicating that her loved one is experiencing these emotions. Initially, the speaker seems to feel that her death has caused sorrow for the loved one and that she remains strong in his memory. In this sense, he would be “planting rue” by mourning her death. In the following lines, however, we learn he is not full of sorrow, so if she has this idea, it proves to be a mistake. Rue is also the name of a shrub having bitter, strongly scented leaves. This definition of rue seems to hint at the true nature of the relationship between the woman and the loved one. The bitter plant contrasts with the beautiful flowers that are often placed on graves, and this contrast becomes stronger when we remember that flowers are a traditional symbol of love and purity. In other words, the speaker doesn’t imagine the man offering a remembrance of beauty and affection, just one of bitterness.

Lines 3-4

In these lines, the speaker’s first question is answered by the “digger” of her grave, though the digger’s identity is unknown at this point in the poem. The anonymous speaker becomes an important factor in the poem, urging the reader to push on and discover who is talking to the woman. What’s made clear in this first stanza is that this voice does not belong to the loved one that the woman thought she was addressing. This is indicated by the use of the third-person “he” to refer to the man. The voice explains that the woman’s loved one — perhaps a husband or lover — has married another woman. What’s more, he has married a very wealthy mate and appears to be doing quite well without the woman in the grave.

Lines 5-6

Here, the digger quotes the words of the loved one, and the man states that his recent marriage will have no effect upon the deceased woman. With this, the poet completes the first of several ironic passages that continue throughout the poem. In all of these, the woman in the grave wants to believe that others are thinking of her following her death. In reality, however, she has been largely forgotten. Hardy uses these ironic reversals to create a somewhat humorous tone, and this type of unexpected switch is often used to make people laugh. In this poem, Hardy’s writing becomes a kind of “black humor” because it centers on death — a grim event that is not usually associated with merriment. This effect is intensified because the humor of the poem reveals a sad message: the dead woman is forgotten and eternally lonely.

Lines 7-8

This stanza again begins with a variation of the refrain, “Who is digging on my grave?” The “Then” moves the poem forward as it enables the narrator to discount the lover and move toward other possibilities. She chooses members of her family and imagines that they are remembering her by caring for her grave.

Lines 9-12

Again, the voice answers the woman, telling her that her relatives are not the ones she hears digging. Instead, they think that it’s pointless to tend her grave, as no amount of care will raise her from the dead.

Lines 13-14

Again there is the variation of the refrain “Are You Digging On My Grave?” but this time it is not as definitive. The speaker is more hesitant, as if she doubts herself. She also seems to be more desperate to find someone who remembers her. Since her loved one and her relatives have forsaken her memory, she imagines that the digging is being done by a woman she disliked in her life, perhaps a rival. While there was ill feeling between the two, it seems that the buried woman finds some solace in the idea that her enemy is still concerned enough with her presence to cause some kind of harm to her grave.

Lines 15-16

The reference to passing “the Gate” is another term for the woman’s death. Hardy’s use of the phrase seems to allude to the idea of the pearly gates that theoretically mark the entrance to heaven. He does not present a glorified picture of this passageway, however, as is typically the case with such an image. Instead, “the Gate / shuts on all flesh,” a phrase that suggests death is like a trap, not a place where one receives heavenly rewards. This image reinforces the one in line 12, where the unknown speaker made reference to “Death’s gin” — gin meaning a type of snare or trap that is used to catch animals.

Lines 17-18

Here, the unknown voice presents one of the most direct, and most chilling, statements of the poem’s central idea: the deceased woman has been forgotten by the living and does not concern them at all.

Lines 19-20

In this stanza, the woman finally gives up her game of trying to guess who is digging on the grave and asks a direct question of the unknown voice.

Lines 21-24

Here, the identity of the unknown speaker is revealed. This is a key turning point in the poem. Until now, the reader has been involved in the mystery of who might be speaking to the woman, and this puzzle has been one of the elements that has kept the reader caught up in the developing narrative. Now that this mystery has been solved, the poet must find a new way to hold the reader’s interest. He does this in two ways. First, he uses the unexpected and humorous twist of having a dog be the individual who is speaking. Second, he creates another ironic set-up in the following stanzas to once again show that the woman has little importance in the living world.

Lines 25-30

The fifth stanza is given over completely to the woman who talks of the dog’s loyalty. This is the woman’s longest stretch of unbroken commentary in the poem, and it serves to build up the reader’s expectations for the ironic conclusion in the final paragraph. In a sense, this final situation is exactly the same as the ones that have preceded it: the woman’s explanation for the digging shows that she wants her former acquaintances to remember her and be touched by her death; the reality is the opposite — they have little concern for her now that she is gone. By lengthening the woman’s explanation in this paragraph, as well as the dog’s subsequent reply, Hardy gives more zing to this last incident and brings the poem toward its conclusion.

Lines 31-34

In the final stanza, Hardy takes the poem to its highest level of satire as the dog indicates that the bone is a more important than his former mistress. The mention of the bone also suggests the way in which those in the living world now view the woman; she is simply a pile of bones buried in the ground and no longer has importance to those she used to know.

Lines 35-36

With the final lines, Hardy drives home his central point: the woman has been forgotten by those she once knew.

Authors Biography:-

“Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave?” was first published in the Saturday Review on September 27, 1913, then in Thomas Hardy’s 1914 collection, Satires of Circumstance: Lyrics and Reveries with Miscellaneous Pieces. The poem reflects Hardy’s interest in death and events beyond everyday reality, but these subjects are presented humorously, with a strong dose of irony and satire. This treatment is somewhat unusual for Hardy, who also produced a number of more serious poems concerning death. In “Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave?” a deceased woman carries on a dialogue with an individual who is disturbing her grave site. The identity of this figure, the “digger” of the woman’s grave, is unknown through the first half of the poem. As the woman attempts to guess who the digger is, she reveals her desire to be remembered by various figures she was acquainted with when she was alive. In a series of ironic turns, the responses of the digger show that the woman’s acquaintances — a “loved one,” family relatives, and a despised enemy — have all forsaken her memory. Finally, it is revealed that the digger is the woman’s dog, but the canine, too, is unconcerned with his former mistress and is digging only so it can bury a bone. Though the poem contains a humorous tone, the picture Hardy paints is bleak; the dead are almost completely eliminated from the memory of the living and do not enjoy any form of contentment. This somber outlook is typical of Hardy’s verse, which often presented a skeptical and negative view of the human condition.