"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." In the New Boston Review, Shaun O'Connell contended that even Heaney's most overtly political poems contain depths that subtly alter their meanings. The author "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," noted Morrison. While some reviewers criticized Heaney for being an apologist and mythologizer, Morrison suggested that Heaney would never reduce political situations to false simple clarity, and never thought his role should be as a political spokesman. The poet sought to weave the ongoing Irish troubles into a broader historical frame embracing the general human situation in the books Wintering Out (1973) and North (1975). Using descriptions of rural laborers and their tasks and contemplations of natural phenomena-filtered through childhood and adulthood-Heaney "makes you see, hear, smell, taste this life, which in his words is not provincial, but parochial provincialism hints at the minor or the mediocre, but all parishes, rural or urban, are equal as communities of the human spirit," noted Newsweek correspondent Jack Kroll.Īs a poet from Northern Ireland, Heaney used his work to reflect upon the "Troubles," the often-violent political struggles that plagued the country during Heaney’s young adulthood. According to Morrison, a "general spirit of reverence toward the past helped Heaney resolve some of his awkwardness about being a writer: he could serve his own community by preserving in literature its customs and crafts, yet simultaneously gain access to a larger community of letters." Indeed, Heaney's earliest poetry collections- Death of a Naturalist (1966) and Door into the Dark (1969)-evoke "a hard, mainly rural life with rare exactness," according to critic and Parnassus contributor Michael Wood. They taught me that trust and helped me to articulate it." Heaney’s work has always been most concerned with the past, even his earliest poems of the 1960s. Recalling his time in Belfast, Heaney once noted: "I learned that my local County Derry experience, which I had considered archaic and irrelevant to 'the modern world' was to be trusted. As a Catholic in Protestant Northern Ireland, Heaney once described himself in the New York Times Book Review as someone who "emerged from a hidden, a buried life and entered the realm of education." Eventually studying English at Queen’s University, Heaney was especially moved by artists who created poetry out of their local and native backgrounds-authors such as Ted Hughes, Patrick Kavanagh, and Robert Frost. The impact of his surroundings and the details of his upbringing on his work are immense. Heaney was born and raised in Castledawson, County Derry, Northern Ireland. ![]() Often described as a regional poet, he is also a traditionalist who deliberately gestures back towards the “pre-modern” worlds of William Wordsworth and John Clare. The New York Review of Books essayist Richard Murphy described Heaney as "the poet who has shown the finest art in presenting a coherent vision of Ireland, past and present." Heaney's poetry is known for its aural beauty and finely-wrought textures. ![]() As Blake Morrison noted in his work Seamus Heaney, the author is "that rare thing, a poet rated highly by critics and academics yet popular with 'the common reader.'" Part of Heaney's popularity stems from his subject matter-modern Northern Ireland, its farms and cities beset with civil strife, its natural culture and language overrun by English rule. Heaney has attracted a readership on several continents and has won prestigious literary awards and honors, including the Nobel Prize. ![]() He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past." Heaney taught at Harvard University (1985-2006) and served as the Oxford Professor of Poetry (1989-1994). He was the author of over 20 volumes of poetry and criticism, and edited several widely used anthologies. ![]() A native of Northern Ireland, Heaney was raised in County Derry, and later lived for many years in Dublin. Seamus Heaney is widely recognized as one of the major poets of the 20th century.
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