Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney MRIA
Heaney in 1982
Born	(1939-04-13)13 April 1939 Tamniaran, nearCastledawson,Northern Ireland
Died	30 August 2013(2013-08-30)(aged 74) Blackrock, Dublin,Ireland
Resting place	St. Mary's Church, Bellaghy,Northern Ireland
Occupation	Poet playwright translator
Alma mater	Queen's University Belfast
Period	1966–2013
Notable works	List of notable works Death of a Naturalist(1966) North(1975) Field Work(1979) The Spirit Level(1996) Beowulf: A New Verse Translation(translation, 1999) District and Circle(2006) Human Chain(2010)
Spouse	Marie Devlin ​ (m.1965)​
Children	3

Seamus Justin HeaneyMRIA(13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was anIrish poet,playwright and translator. He received the1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.Among his best-known works isDeath of a Naturalist(1966), his first major published volume. American poetRobert Lowelldescribed him as "the most important Irish poet sinceYeats",and many others, including the academicJohn Sutherland,have said that he was "the greatest poet of our age".Robert Pinskyhas stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller."Upon his death in 2013,The Independentdescribed him as "probably the best-known poet in the world".

Heaney was born in the townland of Tamniaran betweenCastledawsonandToomebridge,Northern Ireland. His family moved to nearbyBellaghywhen he was a boy. He became a lecturer at St. Joseph's College inBelfastin the early 1960s, after attendingQueen's Universityand began to publish poetry. He lived inSandymount,Dublin, from 1976 until his death.He lived part-time in the United States from 1981 to 2006. He was a professor atHarvardfrom 1981 to 1997, and their Poet in Residence from 1988 to 2006. From 1989 to 1994, he was also theProfessor of PoetryatOxford.In 1996 he was made aCommandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettresand in 1998 was bestowed the titleSaoi of Aosdána.He received numerous prestigious awards.

Heaney is buried atSt. Mary's Church, Bellaghy,Northern Ireland. The headstone bears the epitaph "Walk on air against your better judgement", from his poem "The Gravel Walks".

Early life

Wearing a poppy bruise on the left temple,
He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four-foot box, a foot for every year.

from "Mid-Term break",
Death of a Naturalist(1966)

Heaney was born on 13 April 1939 at the family farmhouse called Mossbawn,betweenCastledawsonandToomebridge;he was the first of nine children. In 1953, his family moved toBellaghy,a few miles away, which is now the family home. His father was Patrick Heaney (d. October 1986),a farmer and cattle dealer, and the eighth child of ten born to James and Sarah Heaney.Patrick was introduced to cattle dealing by his uncles, who raised him after his parents' early deaths.Heaney's mother was Margaret Kathleen McCann (1911–1984), whose relatives worked at a locallinen mill.Heaney remarked on the inner tension between the rural Gaelic past exemplified by his father and the industrialized Ulster exemplified by his mother.

Heaney attended Anahorish Primary School, and won a scholarship toSt Columb's College,a Roman Catholic boarding school inDerrywhen he was twelve years old. While studying at St Columb's, Heaney's younger brother Christopher was killed in February 1953 at the age of four in a road accident. The poems "Mid-Term Break"and"The Blackbird of Glanmore"are related to his brother's death.

Heaney playedGaelic footballforCastledawson GAC,the club in the area of his birth, as a boy, and did not change to Bellaghy when his family moved there.However, he has remarked that he became involved culturally with Bellaghy GAA Club in his late teens, acting in amateur plays and composing treasure hunts for the club.

Career

1957–1969

Further information on his works during this period:Death of a NaturalistandDoor into the Dark

Seamus Heaney in 1970

My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away

Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. 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.

from "Digging",Death of a Naturalist(1966)

Heaney studied English Language and Literature atQueen's University Belfaststarting in 1957. While there, he found a copy ofTed Hughes'sLupercal,which spurred him to write poetry. "Suddenly, the matter of contemporary poetry was the material of my own life," he said.He graduated in 1961 with a First Class Honours degree.

Heaney studied for a teacher certification at St Joseph's Teacher Training College in Belfast (now merged withSt Mary's, University College), and began teaching at St Thomas' Secondary Intermediate School inBallymurphy, Belfast.The headmaster of this school was the writerMichael McLavertyfromCounty Monaghan,who introduced Heaney to the poetry ofPatrick Kavanagh.With McLaverty's mentorship, Heaney first started to publish poetry in 1962.Sophia Hillandescribes how McLaverty was like a foster father to the younger Belfast poet.In the introduction to McLaverty'sCollected Works,Heaney summarised the poet's contribution and influence: "His voice was modestly pitched, he never sought the limelight, yet for all that, his place in our literature is secure."Heaney's poem "Fosterage", in the sequence "Singing School", fromNorth(1975), is dedicated to him.

In 1963 Heaney began lecturing at St Joseph's, and joined theBelfast Group,a poets' workshop organized byPhilip Hobsbaum,then an English lecturer at Queen's University. Through this, Heaney met other Belfast poets, includingDerek MahonandMichael Longley.

Heaney met Marie Devlin, a native ofArdboe,County Tyrone, while at St Joseph's in 1962; they married in August 1965and would go on to have three children.A school teacher and writer, Devlin publishedOver Nine Waves(1994), a collection of traditional Irish myths and legends. Heaney's first book,Eleven Poems,was published in November 1965 for the Queen's University Festival.In 1966 their first son, Michael, was born. He earned a living at the time by writing forThe Irish Times,often on the subject of radio.A second son, Christopher, was born in 1968.

Heaney initially sought publication withDolmen Pressin Dublin for his first volume of work. While waiting to hear back, he was signed withFaber and Faberand publishedDeath of a Naturalistin 1966, and Faber remained his publisher for the rest of his life. This collection was met with much critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Gregory Award for Young Writers and the Geoffrey Faber Prize.The same year, he was appointed as a lecturer in Modern English Literature atQueen's University Belfast.In 1968, Heaney andMichael Longleyundertook a reading tour calledRoom to Rhyme,which increased awareness of the poet's work. The following year, he published his second major volume,Door into the Dark.

1970–1984

Further information on his works during this period:Wintering Out,North (poetry collection),Field Work (poetry collection),andSelected Poems 1965–1975

Heaney taught as a visiting professor in English at theUniversity of California, Berkeleyin the 1970–1971 academic year.In 1972, he left his lectureship in Belfast, moved toWicklowin the Republic of Ireland, and began writing on a full-time basis. That year, he published his third collection,Wintering Out.In 1975, Heaney's next volume,North,was published.A pamphlet of prose poems entitledStationswas published the same year.

In 1976 Heaney was appointed Head of English atCarysfort Collegein Dublin and moved with his family to the suburb ofSandymount.His next collection,Field Work,was published in 1979.Selected Poems 1965-1975andPreoccupations: Selected Prose 1968–1978were published in 1980. WhenAosdána,the national Irish Arts Council, was established in 1981, Heaney was among those elected into its first group. (He was subsequently elected aSaoi,one of its five elders and its highest honour, in 1997).

Also in 1981, Heaney travelled to the United States as a visiting professor at Harvard, where he was affiliated withAdams House.He was awarded two honorary doctorates, from Queen's University and fromFordham Universityin New York City (1982). At the Fordham commencement ceremony on 23 May 1982, Heaney delivered his address as a 46-stanza poem entitled "Verses for a Fordham Commencement."

Born and educated in Northern Ireland, Heaney stressed that he was Irish and not British.Following the success of theField Day Theatre Company's production ofBrian Friel'sTranslations,the founders Brian Friel andStephen Readecided to make the company a permanent group. Heaney joined the company's expanded Board of Directors in 1981.In autumn 1984, his mother, Margaret, died.

1985–1999

Further information on his works during this period:Station Island (poetry),The Haw Lantern,The Cure at Troy,andThe Spirit Level (poetry collection)

Marie and Seamus Heaney at the Dominican Church,Kraków,Poland, 4 October 1996

Heaney became a tenured faculty member at Harvard, as the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory (formerly visiting professor) 1985–1997, and theRalph Waldo EmersonPoet in Residence at Harvard 1998–2006.In 1986, Heaney received a Litt.D. fromBates College.His father, Patrick, died in October the same year.The loss of both parents within two years affected Heaney deeply, and he expressed his grief in poems.In 1988, a collection of his critical essays,The Government of the Tongue,was published.

In 1985 Heaney wrote the poem "From the Republic of Conscience" at the request ofAmnesty InternationalIreland. He wanted to "celebrate United Nations Day and the work of Amnesty".The poem inspired the title of Amnesty International's highest honour, theAmbassador of Conscience Award.

In 1988 Heaney donated his lecture notes to the Rare Book Library ofEmory UniversityinAtlanta,Georgia, after giving the notableEllmannLectures there.

In 1989 Heaney was electedOxford Professor of Poetry,which he held for a five-year term to 1994. The chair does not require residence in Oxford. Throughout this period, he was dividing his time between Ireland and the United States. He also continued to give public readings. So well attended and keenly anticipated were these events that those who queued for tickets with such enthusiasm were sometimes dubbed "Heaneyboppers", suggesting an almostteenybopperfan base.

In 1990The Cure at Troy,a play based onSophocles'sPhiloctetes,was published. The next year, he published another volume of poetry,Seeing Things(1991). Heaney was named an Honorary Patron of theUniversity Philosophical Society,Trinity College Dublin,and was elected an Honorary Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature(1991).

In 1993 Heaney guest-editedThe MaysAnthology,a collection of new writing from students at the University of Oxford andUniversity of Cambridge.That same year, he was awarded theDickinson CollegeArts Award and returned to the Pennsylvania college to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree. He was scheduled to return to Dickinson again to receive the Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Award—for a major literary figure—at the time of his death in 2013. Irish poetPaul Muldoonwas named recipient of the award that year, partly in recognition of the close connection between the two poets.

Heaney was awarded theNobel Prize in Literaturein 1995 for "works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past".He was on holiday in Greece with his wife when the news broke. Neither journalists nor his own children could reach him until he arrived atDublin Airporttwo days later, although an Irish television camera traced him toKalamata.Asked how he felt to have his name added to the Irish Nobel pantheon ofW. B. Yeats,George Bernard ShawandSamuel Beckett,Heaney responded: "It's like being a little foothill at the bottom of a mountain range. You hope you just live up to it. It's extraordinary."He and his wife Marie were immediately taken from the airport toÁras an Uachtaráinfor champagne with PresidentMary Robinson.He would refer to the prize discreetly as "the N thing" in personal exchanges with others.

Heaney's 1996 collectionThe Spirit Levelwon theWhitbread Book of the Year Award;he repeated the success in 1999 withBeowulf: A New Verse Translation.

Heaney was elected a Member of theRoyal Irish Academyin 1996 and was admitted in 1997.In the same year, Heaney was electedSaoiofAosdána.In 1998, Heaney was elected Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Dublin.

2000s

TheSeamus Heaney Centre for Poetry,which was officially opened atQueen's University Belfastin 2004

Seamus Heaney in 2009

In 2000 Heaney was awarded an honorary doctorate and delivered the commencement address at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.In 2002, Heaney was awarded an honorary doctorate fromRhodes Universityand delivered a public lecture on "The Guttural Muse".

In 2003 theSeamus Heaney Centre for Poetrywas opened atQueen's University Belfast.It houses the Heaney Media Archive, a record of Heaney's entire oeuvre, along with a full catalogue of his radio and television presentations.That same year, Heaney decided to lodge a substantial portion of his literary archive atEmory Universityas a memorial to the work ofWilliam M. Chace,the university's recently retired president.The Emory papers represented the largest repository of Heaney's work (1964–2003). He donated these to help build theirlarge existing archiveof material from Irish writers including Yeats,Paul Muldoon,Ciaran Carson,Michael Longleyand other members of theBelfast Group.

In 2003, when asked if there was any figure in popular culture who aroused interest in poetry and lyrics, Heaney praised American rap artistEminemfrom Detroit, saying, "He has created a sense of what is possible. He has sent a voltage around a generation. He has done this not just through his subversive attitude but also his verbal energy."Heaney wrote the poem "Beacons at Bealtaine"to mark the2004 EU Enlargement.He read the poem at a ceremony for the 25 leaders of the enlargedEuropean Union,arranged by the IrishEU presidency.

In August 2006 Heaney had a stroke. Although he recovered and joked, "Blessed are the pacemakers" when fitted with a heart monitor,he cancelled all public engagements for several months.He was inCounty Donegalat the time of the 75th birthday of Anne Friel, wife of playwrightBrian Friel.He read the works ofHenning Mankell,Donna LeonandRobert Harriswhile in hospital. Among his visitors was former PresidentBill Clinton.

Heaney'sDistrict and Circlewon the 2006T. S. Eliot Prize.In 2008, he became artist of honour inØstermarie,Denmark, and Seamus Heaney Stræde (street) was named after him. In 2009, Heaney was presented with an Honorary-Life Membership award from theUniversity College Dublin(UCD) Law Society, in recognition of his remarkable role as a literary figure.

Faber and FaberpublishedDennis O'Driscoll's bookStepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaneyin 2008; this has been described as the nearest thing to an autobiography of Heaney.In 2009, Heaney was awarded theDavid Cohen Prizefor Literature. He recorded aspoken word album, over 12 hours long,of himself reading his poetry collections to commemorate his 70th birthday, which occurred on 13 April 2009.

2010s

He spoke at theWest Belfast Festivalin July 2010 in celebration of his mentor, the poet and novelistMichael McLaverty,who had helped Heaney to first publish his poetry.

In September 2010 Faber publishedHuman Chain,Heaney's twelfth collection.Human Chainwas awarded theForward Poetry Prizefor Best Collection, one of the major poetry prizes Heaney had never previously won, despite having been twice shortlisted.The book, published 44 years after the poet's first, was inspired in part by Heaney's stroke in 2006, which left him "babyish" and "on the brink". Poet and Forward judgeRuth Padeldescribed the work as "a collection of painful, honest and delicately weighted poems... a wonderful and humane achievement."WriterColm TóibíndescribedHuman Chainas "his best single volume for many years, and one that contains some of the best poems he has written... is a book of shades and memories, of things whispered, of journeys into the underworld, of elegies and translations, of echoes and silences."In October 2010, the collection was shortlisted for theT. S. Eliot Prize.

Heaney was named one of "Britain's top 300 intellectuals" byThe Observerin 2011, though the newspaper later published a correction acknowledging that "several individuals who would not claim to be British" had been featured, of which Heaney was one.That same year, he contributed translations ofOld IrishmarginaliaforSongs of the Scribe,an album by Traditional Singer in Residence of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry,Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin.

In December 2011 Heaney donated his personal literary notes to theNational Library of Ireland.Even though he admitted he would likely have earned a fortune by auctioning them, Heaney personally packed up the boxes of notes and drafts and, accompanied by his son Michael, delivered them to the National Library.

In June 2012 Heaney accepted theGriffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry's Lifetime Recognition Awardand gave a speech in honour of the award.

Heaney was compiling a collection of his work in anticipation ofSelected Poems 1988–2013at the time of his death. The selection includes poems and writings fromSeeing Things,The Spirit Level,the translation ofBeowulf,Electric Light,District and Circle,andHuman Chain(fall 2014).

In February 2014Emory UniversitypremieredSeamus Heaney: The Music of What Happens,the first major exhibition to celebrate the life and work of Seamus Heaney since his death. The exhibit holds a display of the surface of Heaney's personal writing desk that he used in the 1980s as well as old photographs and personal correspondence with other writers. Heaney died in August 2013 during the exhibition's curatorial process. Though the exhibit's original vision to celebrate Heaney's life and work remains at the forefront, there is a small section commemorating his death and its influence.

In September 2015 it was announced that Heaney's family would posthumously publish his translation of Book VI ofThe Aeneidin 2016.

Death

Heaney's grave atSt. Mary's Church, Bellaghy

Seamus Heaney died in theBlackrock Clinicin Dublin on 30 August 2013, aged 74, following a short illness.After a fall outside a restaurant in Dublin,he entered a hospital for a medical procedure, but died at 7:30 the following morning before it took place. His funeral was held inDonnybrook,Dublin, on the morning of 2 September 2013, and he was buried in the evening atSt. Mary's Church, Bellaghyhis home village, in the same graveyard as his parents, younger brother, and other family members.His son Michael revealed at the funeral mass that his father texted his final words, "Noli timere"(Latin:" Be not afraid "), to his wife, Marie, minutes before he died.

His funeral was broadcast live the following day onRTÉtelevision and radio and was streamed internationally at RTÉ's website.RTÉ Radio 1 Extratransmitted a continuous broadcast, from 8 a.m. to 9:15 p.m. on the day of the funeral, of hisCollected Poemsalbum, recorded by Heaney in 2009.His poetry collections sold out rapidly in Irish bookshops immediately following his death.

Many tributes were paid to Heaney. PresidentMichael D. Higginssaid:

...we in Ireland will once again get a sense of the depth and range of the contribution of Seamus Heaney to our contemporary world, but what those of us who have had the privilege of his friendship and presence will miss is the extraordinary depth and warmth of his personality...Generations of Irish people will have been familiar with Seamus' poems. Scholars all over the world will have gained from the depth of the critical essays, and so many rights organisations will want to thank him for all the solidarity he gave to the struggles within the republic of conscience.

President Higgins also appeared live fromÁras an Uachtaráinon theNine O'Clock Newsin a five-minute segment in which he paid tribute to Seamus Heaney.

Bill Clinton,former President of the United States, said:

Both his stunning work and his life were a gift to the world. His mind, heart, and his uniquely Irish gift for language made him our finest poet of the rhythms of ordinary lives and a powerful voice for peace...His wonderful work, like that of his fellow Irish Nobel Prize winners Shaw, Yeats, and Beckett, will be a lasting gift for all the world.

José Manuel Barroso,European Commission president, said:

I am greatly saddened today to learn of the death of Seamus Heaney, one of the great European poets of our lifetime.... The strength, beauty and character of his words will endure for generations to come and were rightly recognised with the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Harvard University issued a statement:

We are fortunate and proud to have counted Seamus Heaney as a revered member of the Harvard family. For us, as for people around the world, he epitomised the poet as a wellspring of humane insight and artful imagination, subtle wisdom and shining grace. We will remember him with deep affection and admiration.

PoetMichael Longley,a close friend of Heaney, said: "I feel like I've lost a brother."Thomas Kinsellasaid he was shocked, butJohn Montaguesaid he had known for some time that the poet was not well.PlaywrightFrank McGuinnesscalled Heaney "the greatest Irishman of my generation: he had no rivals."Colm Tóibínwrote: "In a time of burnings and bombings Heaney used poetry to offer an alternative world."Gerald Dawesaid he was "like an older brother who encouraged you to do the best you could do".Theo Dorgansaid, "[Heaney's] work will pass into permanence. Everywhere I go there is real shock at this. Seamus was one of us." His publisher,Faber and Faber,noted that "his impact on literary culture is immeasurable."PlaywrightTom Stoppardsaid, "Seamus never had a sour moment, neither in person nor on paper".Andrew Motion,a formerUK Poet Laureateand friend of Heaney, called him "a great poet, a wonderful writer about poetry, and a person of truly exceptional grace and intelligence."

Many memorial events were held, including a commemoration at Emory University,Harvard University, Oxford University and theSouthbank Centre,London.Leading US poetry organisations also met in New York to commemorate the death.

Work

In order that human beings bring about the most radiant conditions for themselves to inhabit, it is essential that the vision of reality which poetry offers should be transformative, more than just a printout of the given circumstances of its time and place. The poet who would be most the poet has to attempt an act of writing that outstrips the conditions even as it observes them.

—from "Joy Or Night: Last Things in the Poetry of W. B. Yeats and Philip Larkin",W. D. Thomas Memorial Lecture delivered by Seamus Heaney at University College of Swansea on 18 January 1993.

Naturalism

At one time Heaney's books made up two-thirds of the sales of living poets in the UK.His work often deals with the local surroundings of Ireland, particularly in Northern Ireland, where he was born and lived until young adulthood. Speaking of his early life and education, he commented, "I learned that my local County Derry experience, which I had considered archaic and irrelevant to 'the modern world', was to be trusted. They taught me that trust and helped me to articulate it."Death of a Naturalist(1966) andDoor into the Dark(1969) mostly focus on the details of rural, parochial life.

In a number of volumes, beginning withDoor into the Dark(1969) andWintering Out(1972), Heaney also spent a significant amount of time writing on the northern Irish bog. Particularly of note is the collection of bog body poems inNorth(1975), featuring mangled bodies preserved in the bog. In a review by Ciaran Carson, he said that the bog poems made Heaney into "the laureate of violence—a mythmaker, an anthropologist of ritual killing...the world of megalithic doorways and charming noble barbarity."Poems such as "Bogland" and "Bog Queen" addressed political struggles directly for the first time.

Politics

Allusions to sectarian differences, widespread in Northern Ireland throughout his lifetime, can be found in his poems.His booksWintering Out(1973) andNorth(1975) seek to interweave commentary onthe Troubleswith a historical context and wider human experience.While some critics accused Heaney of being "an apologist and a mythologiser" of the violence,Blake Morrisonsuggests the poet

has written poems directly about the Troubles as well as elegies for friends and acquaintances who have died in them; he has tried to discover a historical framework in which to interpret the current unrest; and he has taken on the mantle of public spokesman, someone looked to for comment and guidance... Yet he has also shown signs of deeply resenting this role, defending the right of poets to be private and apolitical, and questioning the extent to which poetry, however "committed", can influence the course of history.

Shaun O'Connell in theNew Boston Reviewnotes that "those who see Seamus Heaney as a symbol of hope in a troubled land are not, of course, wrong to do so, though they may be missing much of the undercutting complexities of his poetry, the backwash of ironies which make him as bleak as he is bright."O'Connell notes in hisBoston Reviewcritique ofStation Island:

Again and again Heaney pulls back from political purposes; despite its emblems of savagery,Station Islandlends no rhetorical comfort to Republicanism. Politic about politics,Station Islandis less about a united Ireland than about a poet seeking religious and aesthetic unity.

Heaney is described by criticTerry Eagletonas "an enlightened cosmopolitan liberal",refusing to be drawn. Eagleton suggests: "When the political is introduced... it is only in the context of what Heaney will or will not say."Reflections on what Heaney identifies as "tribal conflict"favour the description of people's lives and their voices, drawing out the "psychic landscape". His collections often recall the assassinations of his family members and close friends, lynchings and bombings.Colm Tóibínwrote, "throughout his career there have been poems of simple evocation and description. His refusal to sum up or offer meaning is part of his tact."

Heaney published "Requiem for theCroppies",a poem that commemorates the Irish rebels of 1798, on the 50th anniversary of the 1916Easter Rising.He read the poem to both Catholic and Protestant audiences in Ireland. He commented, "To read 'Requiem for the Croppies' wasn't to say 'up theIRA' or anything. It was silence-breaking rather than rabble-rousing. "He stated, "You don't have to love it. You just have to permit it."

He turned down the offer oflaureateship of the United Kingdom,partly for political reasons, commenting, "I've nothing against the Queen personally: I had lunch atthe Palaceonce upon a time. "He stated that his "cultural starting point" was "off-centre".A much-quoted statement was when he objected to being included inThe Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry(1982). Although he was born in Northern Ireland, his response to being included in the British anthology was delivered in his poem "An Open Letter":

Don't be surprised if I demur, for, be advised
My passport's green.
No glass of ours was ever raised
To toast The Queen.

Translation

He was concerned, as a poet and a translator, with the English language as it is spoken in Ireland but also as spoken elsewhere and in other times; he exploredAnglo-Saxoninfluences in his work and study. CriticW. S. Di Pieronoted

Whatever the occasion, childhood, farm life, politics and culture in Northern Ireland, other poets past and present, Heaney strikes time and again at the taproot of language, examining its genetic structures, trying to discover how it has served, in all its changes, as a culture bearer, a world to contain imaginations, at once a rhetorical weapon and nutriment of spirit. He writes of these matters with rare discrimination and resourcefulness, and a winning impatience with received wisdom.

Heaney's first translation was of the Irish lyric poemBuile Suibhne,published asSweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish(1984). He took up this character and connection in poems published inStation Island(1984). Heaney's prize-winning translation ofBeowulf(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000, Whitbread Book of the Year Award) was considered groundbreaking in its use of modern language melded with the original Anglo-Saxon "music".

Plays and prose

His plays includeThe Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes(1991). Heaney's 2004 play,The Burial at Thebes,suggests parallels betweenCreonand the foreign policies of theBush administration.

Heaney's engagement with poetry as a necessary engine for cultural and personal change is reflected in his prose worksThe Redress of Poetry(1995) andFinders Keepers: Selected Prose: 1971–2001(2001).

"When a poem rhymes," Heaney wrote, "when a form generates itself, when a metre provokes consciousness into new postures, it is already on the side of life. When a rhyme surprises and extends the fixed relations between words, that in itself protests against necessity. When language does more than enough, as it does in all achieved poetry, it opts for the condition of overlife, and rebels at limit."

He continues: "The vision of reality which poetry offers should be transformative, more than just a printout of the given circumstances of its time and place".Often overlooked and underestimated in the direction of his work is his profound poetic debts to and critical engagement with 20th-century Eastern European poets, and in particular Nobel laureateCzesław Miłosz.

Use in the school syllabus

Heaney's work is used extensively in the school syllabus internationally, including the anthologiesThe Rattle Bag(1982) andThe School Bag(1997) (both edited withTed Hughes). Originally entitledThe Faber Book of Verse for Younger Peopleon the Faber contract, Hughes and Heaney decided the main purpose ofThe Rattle Bagwas to offer enjoyment to the reader: "Arbitrary riches." Heaney commented "the book in our heads was something closer toThe Fancy Free Poetry Supplement".It included work that they would have liked to encountered sooner in their own lives, as well as nonsense rhymes, ballad-type poems, riddles, folk songs and rhythmical jingles. Much familiar canonical work was not included, since they took it for granted that their audience would know the standard fare. Fifteen years later,The School Bagaimed at something different. The foreword stated that they wanted "less of a carnival, more like a checklist." It included poems in English, Irish, Welsh, Scots and Scots Gaelic, together with work reflecting the African-American experience.

Legacy

TheSeamus Heaney HomePlace,in Bellaghy, is a literary and arts centre which commemorates Heaney's legacy.His literary papers are held by theNational Library of Ireland.

Following an approach byFintan O'Toole,the Heaney family authorised a biography of the poet, with access to family-held records (2017). O'Toole had been somewhat acquainted with Heaney and Heaney had, according to his son, admired O'Toole's work.

In November 2019 the documentarySeamus Heaney and the music of what happenswas aired onBBC Two.His wife Marie and his children talked about their family life and read some of the poems he wrote for them. For the first time, Heaney's four brothers remembered their childhood and the shared experiences that inspired many of his poems.

In 2023The Letters of Seamus Heaneywas published, edited byChristopher Reid.

Publications

Poetry: Main Collections

• 1966:Death of a Naturalist,Faber & Faber
• 1969:Door into the Dark,Faber & Faber
• 1972:Wintering Out,Faber & Faber
• 1975:North,Faber & Faber
• 1979:Field Work,Faber & Faber
• 1984:Station Island,Faber & Faber
• 1987:The Haw Lantern,Faber & Faber
• 1991:Seeing Things,Faber & Faber
• 1996:The Spirit Level,Faber & Faber
• 2001:Electric Light,Faber & Faber
• 2006:District and Circle,Faber & Faber
• 2010:Human Chain,Faber & Faber

Poetry: Selected Editions

• 1980:Selected Poems 1965–1975,Faber & Faber
• 1990:New Selected Poems 1966–1987,Faber & Faber
• 1998:Opened Ground: Poems 1966–1996,Faber & Faber
• 2014:New Selected Poems 1988–2013,Faber & Faber
• 2018:100 Poems,Faber & Faber

Prose: Main Collections

• 1980:Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968–1978,Faber & Faber
• 1988:The Government of the Tongue,Faber & Faber
• 1995:The Redress of Poetry: Oxford Lectures,Faber & Faber

Prose: Selected Editions

• 2001:Finders Keepers: Selected Prose 1971–2001,Faber & Faber

Plays

• 1990:The Cure at Troy: A version of Sophocles' Philoctetes,Field Day
• 2004:The Burial at Thebes: A version of Sophocles' Antigone,Faber & Faber

Translations

• 1983:Sweeney Astray: A version from the Irish,Field Day
• 1992:Sweeney's Flight(withRachel Giese,photographer), Faber & Faber
• 1993:The Midnight Verdict:Translations from the Irish ofBrian Merrimanand from theMetamorphosesofOvid,Gallery Press
• 1995:Laments,a cycle of Polish Renaissance elegies byJan Kochanowski,translated withStanisław Barańczak,Faber & Faber
• 1999:Beowulf: A New Verse Translation,Faber & Faber
• 1999:Diary of One Who Vanished,a song cycle byLeoš Janáčekof poems byOzef Kalda,Faber & Faber
• 2009:The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables,Faber & Faber
• 2016:Aeneid: Book VI,Faber & Faber
• 2022:The Translations,Faber & Faber

Limited Editions and Booklets (poetry, prose, and translations)

• 1965:Eleven Poems,Queen's University
• 1968:The Island People,BBC
• 1968:Room to Rhyme,Arts Council N.I.
• 1969:A Lough Neagh Sequence,Phoenix
• 1970:Night Drive,Gilbertson
• 1970:A Boy Driving His Father to Confession,Sceptre Press
• 1973:Explorations,BBC
• 1975:Stations,Ulsterman Publications
• 1975:Bog Poems,Rainbow Press
• 1975:The Fire i' the Flint,Oxford University Press
• 1976:Four Poems,Crannog Press
• 1977:Glanmore Sonnets,Editions Monika Beck
• 1977:In Their Element,Arts Council N.I.
• 1978:Robert Lowell: A Memorial Address and an Elegy,Faber & Faber
• 1978:The Makings of a Music,University of Liverpool
• 1978:After Summer,Gallery Press
• 1979:Hedge School,Janus Press
• 1979:Ugolino,Carpenter Press
• 1979:Gravities,Charlotte Press
• 1979:A Family Album,Byron Press
• 1980:Toome,National College of Art and Design
• 1981:Sweeney Praises the Trees,Henry Pearson
• 1982:A Personal Selection,Ulster Museum
• 1982:Poems and a Memoir,Limited Editions Club
• 1983:An Open Letter,Field Day
• 1983:Among Schoolchildren,Queen's University
• 1984:Verses for a Fordham Commencement,Nadja Press
• 1984:Hailstones,Gallery Press
• 1985:From the Republic of Conscience,Amnesty International
• 1985:Place and Displacement,Dove Cottage
• 1985:Towards a Collaboration,Arts Council N.I.
• 1986:Clearances,Cornamona Press
• 1988:Readings in Contemporary Poetry,DIA Art Foundation
• 1988:The Sounds of Rain,Emory University
• 1988:The Dark Wood,Colin Smythe
• 1989:An Upstairs Outlook,Linen Hall Library
• 1989:The Place of Writing,Emory University
• 1990:The Tree Clock,Linen Hall Library
• 1991:Squarings,Hieroglyph Editions
• 1992:Dylan the Durable,Bennington College
• 1992:The Gravel Walks,Lenoir Rhyne College
• 1992:The Golden Bough,Bonnefant Press
• 1993:Keeping Going,Bow and Arrow Press
• 1993:Joy or Night,University of Swansea
• 1994:Extending the Alphabet,Memorial University of Newfoundland
• 1994:Speranza in Reading,University of Tasmania
• 1995:Oscar Wilde Dedication,Westminster Abbey
• 1995:Charles Montgomery Monteith,All Souls College
• 1995:Crediting Poetry: The Nobel Lecture,Gallery Press
• 1996:Commencement Address,UNC Chapel Hill
• 1997:Poet to Blacksmith,Pim Witteveen
• 1997:An After Dinner Speech,Atlantic Foundation
• 1998:Audenesque,Maeght
• 1999:The Light of the Leaves,Bonnefant Press
• 1999:Ballynahinch Lake,Sonzogni
• 2001:Something to Write Home About,Flying Fox
• 2001:Towers, Trees, Terrors,Università degli Studi di Urbino
• 2002:The Whole Thing: on the Good of Poetry,The Recorder
• 2002:Hope and History,Rhodes University
• 2002:A Keen for the Coins,Lenoir Rhyne College
• 2002:Hallaig,Sorley MacLean Trust
• 2002:Arion,a poem byAlexander Pushkin,translated from Russian, with a note by Olga Carlisle,Arion Press
• 2003:Eclogues in Extremis,Royal Irish Academy
• 2003:Squarings,Arion Press
• 2004:Anything can Happen,Town House Publishers
• 2004:Room to Rhyme,University of Dundee
• 2004:The Testament of Cresseid,Enitharmon Press
• 2004:Columcille The Scribe,The Royal Irish Academy
• 2005:A Tribute to Michael McLaverty,Linen Hall Library
• 2005:The Door Stands Open,Irish Writers Centre
• 2005:A Shiver,Clutag Press
• 2007:The Riverbank Field,Gallery Press
• 2008:Articulations,Royal Irish Academy
• 2008:One on a Side,Robert Frost Foundation
• 2009:Spelling It Out,Gallery Press
• 2010:Writer & Righter,Irish Human Rights Commission
• 2012:Stone From Delphi,Arion Press
• 2013:The Last Walk,Gallery Press
• 2019:My Yeats,Yeats Society Sligo

Spoken word

• 2009:Collected Poems(audio recording by Heaney),RTÉwith theLannan Foundation

Prizes and honours

• 1966Eric Gregory Award
• 1967Cholmondeley Award
• 1968Somerset Maugham Award
• 1968Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
• 1975E. M. Forster Award
• 1975Duff Cooper PrizeforNorth
• 1995Nobel Prize in Literature
• 1996 Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
• 1997 ElectedSaoiofAosdána
• 1998St. Louis Literary Awardfrom theSaint Louis UniversityLibrary Associates
• 2000 Elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society
• 2001Golden Wreath of Poetry,given byStruga Poetry Eveningsfor life achievement in the field of poetry
• 2004 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement
• 2005Irish PEN Award
• 2006T. S. Eliot PrizeforDistrict and Circle
• 2007Poetry Now AwardforDistrict and Circle
• 2009David Cohen Prize
• 2011Poetry Now AwardforHuman Chain
• 2011Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2012Griffin Poetry Prize,Lifetime Recognition Award

See also

• List of Nobel laureates in Literature
• List of people on stamps of Ireland

External links

• Seamus Heaneyon Nobelprize.orgincluding the Nobel Lecture on 7 December 1995Crediting Poetry
• Seamus HeaneyatIMDb
• Seamus Heaneyat the Poetry Foundation
• Seamus Heaneyat the Poetry Archive
• Seamus Heaneyat the Academy for American Poets
• Portraits of Seamus Heaneyat theNational Portrait Gallery, London
• BBC Your Paintings in partnership PCF.Painting byPeter Edwards
• Seamus Heaneycollected news and commentary atThe Guardian
• Henri Cole (Fall 1997)."Seamus Heaney, The Art of Poetry No. 75".The Paris Review.Fall 1997 (144).
• Lannan Foundation reading and conversationwith Dennis O'Driscoll, 1 October 2003. (Audio / video – 40 mins).Prose transcript.
• 1998 Whiting Writers' Award Keynote Speech
• Seamus Heaney: Man of Words and GraceNovember–December 2013.
• "History and the homeland" video fromThe New Yorker.15 October 2008.Paul Muldoon,interviews Heaney. (1 hr).
• Archival material atLeeds University Library