Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is one of the best-known poets hailing from Northern Ireland. Seamus Heaney wrote numerous books and poems about Irish life, farming, and landscapes. Seamus Heaney lived most of his life on the island of Ireland and his nationality was the basis for much of his poetry.

Fig. 1 - Seamus Heaney is one of the most celebrated Northern Irish poets ever.

Seamus Heaney: life

Let's look at a summary of Seamus Heaney's biography.

Early life and education

Seamus Heaney was born on the 13th of April 1939 in County Derry in Northern Ireland. He was the oldest of nine children and was born in the family farmhouse of Mossbawn. When Heaney was fourteen (in 1953), his family relocated to a farm in the village of Bellaghy. Heaney's family were Catholic farmers, so he grew up in a rural environment. This childhood experience in the countryside would be a key theme in Heaney's poetry as much of his work is based there.

When Heaney was twelve, he began attending St. Columb's College, a Catholic boarding school in the city of Derry. At St. Columb's, Heaney would be taught in English, Latin, and Irish, which influenced for his later poetry. In 1953, while Heaney was at school, his four-year-old brother Christopher was killed in a car accident. This experience would become the basis of Heaney's 1966 poem, 'Midterm Break',

Seamus Heaney would go on to study English Literature at the Queen's University of Belfast (QUB). There, he studied Anglo Saxon Literature and was also introduced to the poetry of Ted Hughes, Robert Frost, and Patrick Kavanagh. While in Belfast, Heaney joined the Belfast Writers' Group, where he met contemporaries Michael Longley and Derek Mahon. Following his time at QUB, Heaney trained to become a teacher and during this period met and married his wife, Marie Devlin.

Career

Let's look at his career.

1966-1987

In 1966, Heaney published his first collection of poetry, Death of a Naturalist, with Faber & Faber. The collection was met with success and widespread critical acclaim. In the following years, Heaney would work as a lecturer at QUB, and also release his second poetry collection, Door into the Dark, in 1969.

This period would see Heaney work as a lecturer and teacher at Berkeley College (California), Queen's University of Belfast, and Carysfort College, Dublin. He would also release works such as Wintering Out (1972), North (1975), Field Work (1979), and Station Island (1984). Heaney garnered much success during this period and quickly became one of Ireland's most prominent literary voices.

During this period, Heaney received criticism from some of his Northern Irish contemporaries, as his work did not address the conflict occurring in his country. Heaney's poetry and books focused instead on rural life and identity instead of the violence itself. This was partially addressed in his 1975 poem, 'Whatever you say, say nothing', which was written about Northern Irish culture and language during the Troubles.

In 1981, Heaney joined the Board of Directors for the Field Day Theatre Company. He would go on to write for the troupe as well as provide input on its operations.

1988-2000

Heaney spent five years from 1989 to 1994 as a Professor of Poetry at Oxford University. He also worked as the Poet in Residence at Harvard University, where he became a tenured professor. During this time, Heaney split his time between Ireland, England and America.

In 1995, Seamus Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was given the prize for "works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalted everyday miracles and the living past" (Nobel Prize for Literature 1995). Heaney would be the fourth Irishman to win the award, following George Bernard Shaw, W.B Yeats, and Samuel Beckett.

In the period between 1988 and 2000, Seamus Heaney published a play, The Cure of Troy (1991) and two volumes of poetry entitled, Seeing Things (1991) and The Spirit Level (1996).

2000-2013

In 2006, while at his friend Brian Friel’s home, Heaney had a stroke that left the poet partially paralysed on his left side. This incident became the basis of his poem ‘Chanson d’Aventure’ which featured in his final poetry collection, Human Chain (2010).

Death

Seamus Heaney died aged 74 in 2013. The poet died following a short illness after he was admitted to the hospital for a medical procedure.

Seamus Heaney: poems and books

Here are some of Heaney's best-known poems.

'Punishment'

'Punishment' was written in 1975 and first published in the collection North (1975). This is a lyric poem that is divided into eleven quatrains, with no set rhyme scheme.

The poem is split into two sections, as the first half details the discovery of a bog body in Germany in 1951.

The body is identified as a fourteen-year-old girl, who had been killed for committing adultery. The second half of the poem compares this brutal killing to the violence of the Troubles. Heaney uses the two different time frames to compare the brutal acts.

'Tollund Man'

'Tollund Man' was included in Seamus Heaney's 1972 poetry collection, Wintering Out.

The poem is divided into three parts, with the first section detailing the speaker's wish to visit the bog body that was found in Aarhus, Denmark. The second section continues his idea, as it discusses how the speaker fantasises about resurrecting the man and asking him to revive anyone who died during the Troubles.

Fig. 2 - The Tollund Man is a naturally mummified corpse that was found in a peat bog in Denmark. Heaney drew inspiration from the Peat bogs in Northern Ireland for this poem.

The poem finishes with the speaker imagining himself taking the same journey as the Tollund Man, and feeling familiar with the environment. In this poem, Heaney explores themes of violence, history and religion.

'Out of the Bag'

'Out of the Bag' was published in his collection, Collected Poems (2013).

The poem has four parts, with each stanza comprising three lines (tercets). This part of the poem discusses birth from the perspective of a child, with the young speaker imagining that babies come from the doctor's bag.

The second section uses metaphors and analogies of Ancient Greece to discuss medicine. The speaker here is more mature than he was in the first section. The third section of the poem is set in the 1950s, and continues the Ancient GreeK imagery. The final segment of the poem returns to the setting of the first section, as the speaker sees his mother and new sibling. This poem centres on themes of childhood, life and family.

Beowulf (1999)

Seamus Heaney produced translations as well as poems. His most famous piece of translation was of the story of Beowulf (1999).

Beowulf (975-1025) is an Anglo-Saxon text which tells the story of the titular hero, and how he defeated three different monsters. It is widely viewed as one of the most important pieces of literature to come from the Anglo-Saxon period. The story was originally written in Old English and Heaney spent much of the 1990s translating the text.

Heaney's translation of Beowulf (975-1025) has been praised for its use of music and language, while also keeping close to the original source. An excerpt from Beowulf (1999) can be found above).

Seamus Heaney: themes and quotes

Some of the main themes and important quotes from Heaney's works are below.

Nature

Nature is a key theme in much of Seamus Heaney's poetry. His childhood in rural Derry influenced how he depicted the countryside in his work, and rural landscapes became a key image in Heaney's works. Nature is presented in Heaney's work through imagery, metaphors and analogies.

Punishment

Peninsula

Harvest Bow

Identity

Seamus Heaney: facts and impact

Seamus Heaney had a significant impact on Irish life and literature. His writings were centred on Irish life, and in doing so, Heaney brought Irish culture to the wider world while putting Northern Ireland on the map. Heaney's few poems focusing on the Northern Irish The Troubles also had a great impact on the country.

Works such as 'Whatever You Say, Say Nothing' (1975) and 'The Tollund Man' (1972) indicated Heaney as an advocate for peace in the North of Ireland. These works also emphasised the effects of The Troubles on Northern Ireland. Heaney's work has had a lasting impact due to how it universalises specific themes of war, Irish culture and rural life.

12 facts about Seamus Heaney are:

1. He was the eldest of nine siblings and was raised in a Catholic family.

2. He studied English language and literature at Queen's University in Belfast, where he developed an interest in the work of poets such as Ted Hughes and W.B. Yeats.

3. Heaney's early poetry was influenced by his upbringing on the farm and often explored themes of rural life and the natural world.

4. Heaney's breakthrough collection of poems was Death of a Naturalist, which was published in 1966 and won critical acclaim.

5. Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995 for his 'works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.'

6. Heaney was a professor of poetry at both Harvard University and Oxford University.

7. In addition to poetry, Heaney also wrote plays, essays, and critical works on literature.

8. Heaney had a fascination with archaeology and was an amateur archaeologist himself. He wrote a poem about the discovery of an Iron Age body in a bog, titled 'The Tollund Man'.

9. Heaney was known for his love of mushrooms and even dedicated a poem to the 'quiet gathering' of mushrooms in his collection, 'Wintering Out'.

10. Heaney was a fan of the Irish sport of hurling and even wrote a poem about the game titled 'Casualty'.

11. Heaney was an avid reader of detective novels and reportedly enjoyed Agatha Christie's works in particular.

12. Heaney was a fan of the band ABBA and once expressed his admiration for their music in an interview.