Read the excerpt from "Digging" The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge Through living roots awaken in my head. But I’ve no spade to follow men like them. Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I’ll dig with it. Read the haiku by Bashō. When the winter chrysanthemums go, there’s nothing to write about but radishes. What common concern do these poems share?
Answer
A
Both poems put a higher value on farming than writing.
B
Both poems recognize the passing of seasons.
C
Both poems find a link between farming and the act of writing.
D
Both poems lament the dying of flowers and other vegetation.
Explanation
Both poems connect writing with farming. In “Digging,” the speaker cannot dig like the men before him, so he says, “I’ll dig with” his pen, making writing a kind of digging. Bashō’s haiku turns from chrysanthemums to radishes as its subject, linking writing poetry to crops and the farming seasons. The shared concern is the relationship between farming and writing, not a claim that farming is more valuable.
AI-written and checked against the verified answer.