Forbidden Knowledge in Digging for China :: Digging for China

Searching for Forbidden Knowledge in Digging for China In Richard Wilbur's poem, "Digging for China", he writes, " 'Far enough down is China,' somebody said. 'Dig deep enough and you might see the sky as clear as at the bottom of a well.'" (Lines 1-3) Wilbur was suggesting to his readers that if one looks at the world in a different way, they could find a totally different place. We can see this concept when we explore Wilbur's poem as a whole piece. He is talking about finding a paradise in one's backyard. He emphasizes a lot about prayer, and looking harder and digging deeper for this other world. He warns his readers that they must not loose the rest of their life by trying to change one thing. When we, the readers, break apart Wilbur's poem, we find the continuous acknowledgement of religion. The person in the poem works day and night trying to reach China. He/she was on hands and knees trying to dig this hole. "It was a sort of praying, I suspect." (Lines 12-13) This person is realizing that they have to look other places for their "paradise" they are trying to find, so they look to God. When they do this, they are covered in brightness. Wilbur uses the word "palls" to express this idea. The true definition is a black velvet cover that drapes over a coffin. If the person wouldn't have looked to God in prayer, then their "paradise" would be covered in this darkness, rather than the brightness they found. Another word that Wilbur used in reference to prayer was "paten". A paten is a plate that the Eucharist is carried on. The Eucharist is the body of Christ; his life. In the poem, the life that the person was looking for was growing before them, but they were still looking into the hole. The person then begins to realize that they are looking in the wrong place. We see this when Wilbur writes, "my eyes where tired of looking into darkness, my sunbaked head of hanging down a hole." (Lines 18-19) They realize that this idea of their "paradise" is taking away from their life and that they must take their head out of the darkness that it has caused. Wilbur brings up the sun because it shows that the person is coming back to consciousness.