Seamus Heaney 1939-

(Full name Seamus Justin Heaney; has also written under the pseudonym Incertus) Irish poet, critic, essayist, nonfiction writer, playwright, and editor.

The following entry presents an overview of Heaney's career through 2002. For further information on his life and works, see CLC, Volumes 5, 7, 14, 25, 37, 74, and 91.

Widely considered Ireland's most accomplished contemporary poet, Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995 for what the Swedish Academy proclaimed his “works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.” In his poetry, Heaney often considers the role and responsibility of the poet in modern society, exploring themes of self-discovery and spiritual growth while addressing political and cultural issues related to Irish history. His verse is characterized by sensuous language, sexual metaphors, and images drawn from nature. Many critics consider him the greatest Irish poet since William Butler Yeats.

Biographical Information

The eldest of nine children, Heaney was raised as a Roman Catholic in Mossbawn, County Derry, a rural community in the predominantly Protestant Northern Ireland. When he was eleven years old, Heaney left his family's farm to study at Saint Columb's College in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, where he held a scholarship. In 1957 he enrolled at Queen's University in Belfast, where he was introduced to Irish, American, and English literature and became particularly influenced by Ted Hughes, Patrick Kavanagh, and Robert Frost—poets whose works were significantly informed by their childhood experiences. While in college, Heaney contributed poems to university literary magazines using the pseudonym Incertus. After graduating from Queen's University with a first-class honors degree in English literature and a teaching certificate, Heaney held several positions as a secondary school teacher and later returned to Queen's University as a lecturer. During this time, he also established himself as a prominent literary figure with the publication of Death of a Naturalist (1966), his first major volume of poetry. As a Catholic living in Belfast when fighting erupted between Protestants and Catholics in 1969, Heaney took a personal interest in Ireland's social and political unrest and began to address the causes and effects of violence in his poetry. In 1972 Heaney moved from Belfast to a cottage outside Dublin and began writing full time. In 1975 he was named head of the English department at Caryfort College in Dublin. Heaney has frequently traveled to the United States and England and, since 1981, has spent part of each year teaching at Harvard University, where he was appointed the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory in 1984. Heaney also held the chair of Professor of Poetry at Oxford University from 1989 to 1994. Having already received numerous awards for his poetry and translations, Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995.

Major Works

Heaney's earliest poetic works evidence a preoccupation with sensuous memories associated with nature and his rustic childhood. Poems such as “Digging” in Death of a Naturalist evoke the Irish countryside and comment on the care and skill with which his father and ancestors farmed the land. Nature is also a prominent theme in Door into the Dark (1969), in which several poems focus on the work of rural laborers. “Undine,” for instance, describes the process of agricultural irrigation in the context of myth and sexuality. Much of Heaney's poetry addresses the history of social unrest in Northern Ireland and considers the relevance of poetry in the face of violence and political upheaval. Wintering Out (1972) and North (1975) contain a series of “bog poems” inspired by the archaeological excavation of Irish peat bogs that contained the preserved remains of ritually slaughtered human bodies dating from the Iron Age. These poems depict the victims of ancient pagan rites, foreshadowing the violence in contemporary Ireland. Other poems such as “Ocean's Love to Ireland” and “Act of Union” portray the English colonization of Ireland as an act of violent sexual conquest. Field Work (1979) addresses the social unrest of Northern Ireland from a personal perspective as Heaney recounts the loss of friends and relatives to “the troubles.” Other consistent themes in Heaney's oeuvre are self-determination and poetic imagination. Irish history is also an important motif in Heaney's poetry, as evidenced in his sequence of allegorical poems in Station Island (1984). Patterned after Dante's Commedia (c.1307-c.1321; Divine Comedy), the sequence portrays a three-day spiritual pilgrimage undertaken by Irish Catholics to Station Island. While on the island, the narrator encounters the souls of dead acquaintances and Irish literary figures who inspire him to reflect on his life and art. The Haw Lantern (1987) presents a selection of parables about Irish life, including a series of poems entitled “Clearances,” which explores memories of Heaney's relationship with his mother. Other poems in the collection, such as “From the Republic of Conscience” and “From the Canton of Expectation,” meditate on spirituality in the context of a menacing political climate.

Departing from Heaney's earlier emphasis on politics and civic responsibility, Seeing Things (1991) returns to such autobiographical themes as childhood experience and Irish community and ritual. Feelings of loss and yearning are prominent motifs in the collection, as many of the poems evoke celebratory images of Heaney's deceased father who appears frequently throughout the volume. “Squarings”—a sequence of four sections, each containing twelve twelve-line poems—exemplifies Heaney's stylistic and technical experimentation in the collection. The poems in The Spirit Level (1996) examine emotions and ideals that transcend the concrete world, such as “Weighing In,” which offers a meditation on the virtues of self-restraint. The title refers to an Irish term for a carpenter's level, and Heaney's verse reflects the poet's desire to find balance in all spheres of existence. Opened Ground (1998) not only focuses on the physical ground of Ireland, but also on the ground—or foundation—of violence and oppression throughout history. This broad collection, selected from Heaney's entire career, demonstrates how his poems are engendered from images, echoes, and emptiness. Electric Light (2001) draws heavily from reminiscences of Heaney's youth, accompanied by elegies for the people and poets who shaped his life. The collection offers a celebration of how poetry connects Heaney to all of his past and present influences.

Heaney's adaptations and translations have shown a strong focus on ancient history and mythology, while emphasizing the concept of poetry as a liturgical rite. For example, the prose poem Sweeney Astray (1983) has its roots in the medieval Irish tale of King Sweeney, who was transformed from a warrior-king into a bird as the result of a curse. In The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes (1990) and The Midnight Verdict (1993), Heaney pays homage to several ancient authors, including Sophocles and Ovid, who have inspired his works. Heaney's most acclaimed translation has been his reinterpretation of Beowulf (1999), commissioned by the Norton Anthology of Literature. Heaney attempts to open up the Beowulf myth to a wider audience by replacing the original Old English with more accessible and energetic language. However, scholars have debated the merits of Heaney's use of Irish words handed down from the ancient Anglo-Saxons, with some arguing that this damages the text by arbitrarily inserting Irish elements into a story of Germanic and Swedish descent.

Critical Reception

Critical response to Heaney's work has been predominately positive and enthusiastic. Bruce Murphy has described Heaney as “the poet of the English language with the best ear of any now living.” Comparisons between his work and that of other Irish writers—particularly William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett—have proliferated throughout his career. Reviewers have consistently praised how Heaney addresses Ireland's cultural tensions and divisions through the linguistic duality of his poetry, noting his skillful use of both Irish and English literary traditions. Heaney has also been commended for his experimentation with form and style, especially in Station Island and Seeing Things. Although some scholars have faulted Seeing Things for its presentation of overly elusive images and themes, several have praised the volume for its imaginative qualities and its focus on visionary transcendence experienced through ordinary events. Some critics have interpreted the figure of King Sweeney in Sweeney Astray as a representation of the artist torn between imaginative freedom and the constraints of religious, political, and domestic obligations, lauding Heaney's thoughtful examination of the role of the poet in society. Reviewers of Heaney's translation of Beowulf have complimented his ability to remain faithful both to his poetic vision and to the authenticity of the story. William Pratt has likened Heaney's task of translating the work as comparable to the heroic deeds of Beowulf himself, commenting that Heaney “dredged out of the Old English epic something that compares with what he has dredged out of his native Irish bog, something beautiful as well as terrifying.”