Heaney, Seamus | William Logan (review date 1992)
William Logan (review date 1992)
SOURCE: A review of Seeing Things, in Poetry, (Chicago), Vol. CLX, No. 3, June, 1992, pp. 170-74.
[In the following mixed review, Logan faults Heaney for writing "poems" instead of poetry, asserting that the poems in Seeing Things lack passion and instinct.]
It is almost impossible to dislike a poet as gifted as Seamus Heaney. His later poetry has been so well mannered and well marveled, so shapely and infused with the dark instinct of life, so full of respect for the ancients of poetry and for the form itself, so little afflicted by the international bonhomie that grates in the poetry of Brodsky and even Walcott, so moodily decent and eloquently anguished that it seems churlish to suggest that much of his new poetry consists of the smile without the Cheshire cat. It seems churlish because Seeing Things is a more distinguished book than any of the others under review—indeed, it is a...
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