Press enter after choosing selection

Celebrating the Life of Poet, Seamus Heaney

by Nholtzman

In the month of August I am always reminded of the poet, Seamus Heaney, who died fours years ago on August 30th. He was a prolific writer; he left behind many poems and a translation of the epic tale, Beowulf.

Every August, I celebrate his life by rereading my favorite book of poems, North. Heaney grew up on a farm in Northern Ireland. His book of poems, North, begins with two poems about the farm he grew up on called Mossbawn. The first few lines of the poem are: "There was a sunlit absence./ The helmeted pump in the yard/ heated its iron,/ water honeyed..."

North has two parts. The first half of the poems deal with Greek mythology and Heaney's "Bog people." The second section of the collection speaks of the political climate and the conflicts in Northern Ireland during the 1970's and before.

If you are looking to delve deeper into Heaney's work, please do! AADL has volumes of Heaney's poetry calling your name...

Selected Poems, 1966-1987

Human Chain

The Burial at Thebes

The Spirit Level

Comments

I've never actually heard of this poet/author -- I'll have to check out his work sometime in the near future!

One and all -- please add me as a friend. My code is: SWEET646

serendipitous! A colleague and I were just talking about Seamus Haney last night and I hadn't seen this post. We were trying to recall if was 2 years or more since his passing. Thank you for your post!

Are his works originally written in another language?

One & all -- please add me as a friend. My code is: SWEET646

I vividly remember the day when Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature back in 1995. A truly wonderful, visionary poet!

I studied a could of his poems in my IB years! Blackberry picking, frogspawn collecting, watermelon jam-making - all depicted with enough imagery to make a class of Bombay city school-girls feel like they were there.
-TALL963

Graphic for blog posts

Blog Post