Searching for the Forbidden Knowledge in Digging for ChinaIn Richard Wilbur's poem, "Digging for China," he writes: "'Low enough is China.' , someone said. 'Dig deep enough and you might see the sky as clear as at the bottom of a well.'" (Lines 1-3) Wilbur suggested to his readers that if you look at the world in a different way, you might find a completely different place. We can see this concept when we explore Wilbur's poetry as a whole. He's talking about finding a paradise in your own backyard. It really emphasizes praying, looking harder, and digging deeper for this other world. He warns his readers that they shouldn't waste the rest of their lives trying to change one thing. When we readers analyze Wilbur's poetry, we find continued acknowledgment of religion. The person in the poem works day and night trying to reach China. He/she was on his/her knees trying to dig this hole. “It was some kind of prayer, I suspect.” (Lines 12-13) This person is realizing that he has to look in other places for his “heaven” that he is trying to find, so he looks to God. When they do, they are covered in brightness. Wilbur uses the word "palls" to express this idea. The true definition is a black velvet covering that drapes over a coffin. If the person had not looked to God in prayer, then their "heaven" would have been covered by this darkness, rather than the brightness they would have found. Another word Wilbur used in reference to prayer was "paten." A paten is a plate on which the Eucharist is carried. The Eucharist is the body of Christ; his life. In the poem, the life the person was looking for grew 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 were tired of looking in the dark, my head sunbaked from hanging in a hole.” (Lines 18-19) They realize that this idea of ​​their "heaven" takes away their life and that they must get their heads out of the darkness it has caused. Wilbur makes the sun appear because it shows that the person is returning to consciousness.