Seamus Heaney Summary
Seamus Heaney

Biography EssayFrom the beginning critical as well as popular acclaim has greeted each volume of Seamus Heaney's poetry. Who would have predicted in 1966, when his first full-length book appeared, the... Read more

[This entry was updated by Robert Buttel from his entry in the Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, volume 8, pp. 142-165.]From the beginning critical as well as popular acclaim has greet... Read more

In the following prize-winning essay, Hart analyzes the opposing, yet interwoven themes of Heaney's poetry, maintaining that the poet finds "precedents in a tradition of Catholic meditat... Read more

In the following interview, Heaney discusses his poetry, especially the poems in The Haw Lantern, as well as American poets that have influenced his work. [BRANDES]: With your recent birthday (your 49... Read more

In the following excerpt, Burris places Heaney's poetry within the context of pastoral tradition. Abducted by Hades and spirited away to the underworld, Persephone ate several seeds from a p... Read more

In the following essay, Atfield offers a Jungian interpretation of the poetry found in the volume Seeing Things. Seamus Heaney is clearly conversant with Jung's psychology and its relevance ... Read more

In the following excerpt from the full-length study of Heaney's work, Buttel examines the seminal influences on Heaney's early poetry. "A poet begins involved with craft, with ... Read more

In the following review of Heaney's two volumes of collected poetry and prose, Shapiro relates the stylistic and thematic development of Heaney's poetry to his assertion of personal and ... Read more

In the following interview, Heaney discusses his writing habits, the origin of Sweeney Astray, and the work of other contemporary poets. Seamus Heaney, the poet from Ireland, has just been granted ... Read more

Critical Essay by William H. Pritchard I've admired Seamus Heaney's work, but have preserved my distance from it: almost no human beings, but grainily humble perceptions in terse lines.... Read more

Critical Essay by Peter Porter Heaney has plenty of magic in his poetry: that moving on from the first unusual word, the right placing of which is probably in the gift of every poet, to a second one ... Read more

Critical Essay by Denis Donoghue Seamus Heaney … has learned his trade so well that it is now a second nature wonderfully responsive to his first. And the proof is in "Field Work,... Read more

Critical Essay by Anthony Thwaite The first six pieces in [Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968–1978], all quite short, form an untitled section on their own, though three are headed "Mo... Read more

Critical Essay by Robert Pinsky The strengths and limitations of poet-critics, as a class, seem to come from intensity of focus: They need to think about writing, about poetic composition. And any in... Read more

Critical Essay by Rodney Rybus [The essays in Preoccupations] are freely admitted to be occasional pieces brought about by the life of a freelance writer rather than an academic critic, and none at a... Read more

Critical Essay by Gregory A. Schirmer The difficulty that poets face in negotiating between the local and the universal, between a wish to be true to one's place and cultural heritage and a de... Read more

Critical Essay by Harold Bloom I would not say that the Northern Ireland poet Seamus Heaney, at forty, has printed any single poem necessarily as fine as [Yeats's] "Adam's Curse&... Read more

In the following review, Moldaw contrasts the subject matter of Heaney's earlier works with that of Seeing Things and Selected Poems, noting a shift from materiality to abstraction. Seamus H... Read more

In the following excerpt, Hosmer assesses the style and theme of The Spirit Level. Most of Heaney's poetry is eminently accessible. His latest collection, The Spirit Level, is no exception. ... Read more

In the following review, Desmond outlines Heaney's career through the poems in Opened Ground. In his 1995 Nobel Prize address, “Crediting Poetry,” Seamus Heaney defined lyric p... Read more

In the following review, Howe singles out the humanity and energy of the narrative speeches in Heaney's translation of Beowulf, but concedes that Heaney's use of Ulster idiom is inapprop... Read more

In the following essay, Boly applies speech act theory to construct multiple modes of meaning and layers of reality for the main persona in Heaney's poem “Follower.” Readers of... Read more

In the following essay, Quinlan examines Heaney's background as a Catholic native of Northern Ireland, outlining how changes in his life and philosophies affected his poetry. In 1989, when S... Read more

In the following essay, Bolton analyzes the means and ends of Heaney's poetics, as exemplified by the structure and thematic concerns of what Bolton identifies as Heaney's “statio... Read more

In the following review, Mariani celebrates the influence of both famous and non-famous authors on the poems in Electric Light. Because Seamus Heaney and I are of an age, and because he has been my... Read more

In the following review, Oser offers a positive assessment of Electric Light. Like all of Seamus Heaney's work, Electric Light owns up to a modernist inheritance. Anyone who argues that mode... Read more

In the following review, Glover offers a positive assessment of Finders Keepers: Selected Prose, noting that Heaney's poetry and criticism “has helped to keep the craft of poetry on the ... Read more

In the following essay, Tillinghast assesses the political and artistic implications of the poems in Station Island and North. Some years ago when Seamus Heaney was rumored once again to have misse... Read more

In the following essay, Keen applauds the tone and style of Heaney's poetics, highlighting its links to the oral traditions of poetry. Seamus Heaney in the college cafeteria line at Harvard:... Read more

In the following review, Sen assesses the humanist impulses that inform The Spirit Level. Seamus Heaney's collection The Spirit Level is his first book of poems to appear following his 1995 ... Read more

[Kinzie is an American poet, critic, and educator. In the following excerpt, she analyzes the imagery and syntax of Heaney's poetry, focusing on the epic poem, "Station Island."] ... Read more

[In the following article, Grimes summarizes Heaney's life and career.] The Irish poet Seamus Heaney has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In conferring the prize, the Swedish Acad... Read more

[In the following interview, Heaney discusses his philosophy of language and the influence his father and his home in Ireland have had on his poetry.] Seamus Heaney is one of the best known and mos... Read more

[In the following review of The Redress of Poetry, Bayley maintains that though Heaney's criticism is sound and fair, it offers no new startling insights.] Seamus Heaney's slim book o... Read more

Seamus Heaney explores many aspects of Irish history through his poetry and is able to express his thoughts and attitudes towards historical issues by using various poetic techniques such as imagery, ... Read more

Heaney's first anthology Death of a Naturalist is the best source for poems that show how common and often mundane things are described in beautiful language and rediscovered as meaningful activities.... Read more

What does the poem show of the relationship of his father and son, and how time has changed this? The poem "Follower" by Seamus Heaney creates an image of a loving father who was physically powerful ... Read more

Seamus Heaney is one of the greatest poets in recent years and often writes about his childhood. I believe this is because he is trying to understand his own childhood and how his early experiences af... Read more

By examining and connecting to the past years, we are more likely to understand the present day. In "Digging," written in 1966, the contemporary Irish poet, Seamus Heaney provides a perspective of his... Read more

Abstract This research takes a postmodern approach to Seamus Heaney's two poems: Bogland and The Tollund Man. The evidences in the research bring illuminations to the significant issues of post... Read more