Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.Obituary: Heaney ‘the most important Irish poet since Yeats’
''Irish Times,'' 30 August 2013.Seamus Heaney obituary
''The Guardian,'' 30 August 2013. Among his best-known works is ''

Death of a Naturalist ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966) is a collection of poems written by Seamus Heaney, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. The collection was Heaney's first major published volume, and includes ideas that he had presented at meetings o ...

'' (1966), his first major published volume. Heaney was and is still recognised as one of the principal contributors to poetry in Ireland during his lifetime. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since

Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland, have said that he was "the greatest poet of our age".

Robert Pinsky Robert Pinsky (born October 20, 1940) is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most o ...

has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller." Upon his death in 2013, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' described him as "probably the best-known poet in the world". Heaney was born in the townland of Tamniaran between

Castledawson Castledawson is a village in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is mostly within the townland of Shanemullagh (, IPA: �anˠˈʃanˠˌwʊl̪ˠəx, about four miles from the north-western shore of Lough Neagh, and near the market town of Mag ...

and

Toomebridge Toome or Toomebridge () is a small village and townland on the northwest corner of Lough Neagh in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies in the civil parish of Duneane in the former barony of Toome Upper, and is in the Antrim and Newtown ...

, Northern Ireland. His family moved to nearby

Bellaghy Bellaghy () is a village in County Derry, Northern Ireland. It lies north west of Lough Neagh and about 5 miles north east of Magherafelt. In the centre of the village (known locally as The Diamond) three main roads lead to Magherafelt, Po ...

when he was a boy. He became a lecturer at St. Joseph's College in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

in the early 1960s, after attending Queen's University and began to publish poetry. He lived in Sandymount, Dublin, from 1976 until his death. He lived part-time in the United States from 1981 to 2006. Heaney was a professor at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

from 1981 to 1997, and its Poet in Residence from 1988 to 2006. From 1989 to 1994, he was also the Professor of Poetry at Oxford. In 1996 he was made a

Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

and in 1998 was bestowed the title

Saoi Saoi (, plural ''Saoithe''; literally "wise one"; historically the title of the head of a bardic school) is the highest honour bestowed by Aosdána, a state-supported association of Irish creative artists. The title is awarded, for life, to an exis ...

of the

Aosdána Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association of artists. It was created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers with support from the country's Arts Council. Membership, which is by invitation from current member ...

. Other awards that he received include the

Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize is a British literary prize established in 1963 in tribute to Geoffrey Faber, founder and first Chairman of the publisher Faber & Faber. It recognises a single volume of poetry or fiction by a United Kingdom, Irish ...

(1968), the E. M. Forster Award (1975), the

PEN Translation Prize The PEN Translation Prize (formerly known as the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize through 2008) is an annual award given by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to outstanding translations into the English language. It has been p ...

(1985), the Golden Wreath of Poetry (2001), the T. S. Eliot Prize (2006) and two

Whitbread Prize The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

s (1996 and 1999). In 2011, he was awarded the

Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is Canada's most generous poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, the awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. ...

and in 2012, a Lifetime Recognition Award from the Griffin Trust. Heaney is buried at the Cemetery of St Mary's Church, Bellaghy, Northern Ireland. The headstone bears the epitaph "Walk on air against your better judgement", from one of his poems, "The Gravel Walks".

Early life

Heaney was born on 13 April 1939, at the family farmhouse called Mossbawn, Archived at Wayback Engine. between

and

; he was the first of nine children. In 1953, his family moved to

, a few miles away, which is now the family home. His father was Patrick Heaney (d. October 1986), a farmer and cattle dealer, and the eighth child of ten born to James and Sarah Heaney. Patrick was introduced to cattle dealing by his uncles, who raised him after his parents' early deaths. Heaney's mother was Margaret Kathleen McCann (1911–1984), whose relatives worked at a local linen mill. Heaney remarked on the inner tension between the rural Gaelic past exemplified by his father and the industrialized Ulster exemplified by his mother. Heaney attended Anahorish Primary School, and won a scholarship to St Columb's College, a Roman Catholic boarding school in Derry, when he was twelve years old. While studying at St Columb's, Heaney's younger brother Christopher was killed in February 1953 at the age of four in a road accident. The poems " Mid-Term Break" and " The Blackbird of Glanmore" are related to his brother's death. Heaney played

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

for

Castledawson GAC Saint Malachy's GAC Castledawson is a Gaelic Athletic Club from Castledawson, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The club is a member of Derry GAA and currently compete in gaelic football, hurling and camogie. 2017 Championship Football ...

, the club in the area of his birth, as a boy, and did not change to Bellaghy when his family moved there.

Career

1957–1969

Heaney studied English Language and Literature at Queen's University Belfast starting in 1957. While there, he found a copy of

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

's ''Lupercal,'' which spurred him to write poetry. "Suddenly, the matter of contemporary poetry was the material of my own life," he said. He graduated in 1961 with a First Class Honours degree. Heaney studied for a teacher certification at St Joseph's Teacher Training College in Belfast (now merged with St Mary's, University College), and began teaching at St Thomas' Secondary Intermediate School in Ballymurphy, Belfast. The headmaster of this school was the writer

Michael McLaverty Michael McLaverty (5 July 1904 – 22 March 1992) was an Irish writer of novels and short stories.County Monaghan County Monaghan ( ; ga, Contae Mhuineacháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County Cou ...

, who introduced Heaney to the poetry of

Patrick Kavanagh Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel ''Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life th ...

.Ed. Bernard O’Donoghue ''The Cambridge Companion to Seamus Heaney'' (2009) Cambridge University Press pxiii
. Retrieved 23 May 2010. With McLaverty's mentorship, Heaney first started to publish poetry in 1962. Sophia Hillan describes how McLaverty was like a foster father to the younger Belfast poet. In the introduction to McLaverty's ''Collected Works,'' Heaney summarised the poet's contribution and influence: "His voice was modestly pitched, he never sought the limelight, yet for all that, his place in our literature is secure." Heaney's poem ''Fosterage'', in the sequence ''Singing School'' from ''

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

'' (1975), is dedicated to him. In 1963 Heaney began lecturing at St Joseph's, and joined the Belfast Group, a poets' workshop organized by

Philip Hobsbaum Philip Dennis Hobsbaum (29 June 1932 – 28 June 2005) was a British teacher, poet and critic. Life Hobsbaum was born into a Polish Jewish family in London, and brought up in Bradford, Yorkshire, where he attended Belle Vue Boys' Grammar Sc ...

, then an English lecturer at Queen's University. Through this, Heaney met other Belfast poets, including

Derek Mahon Derek Mahon (23 November 1941 – 1 October 2020) was an Irish poet. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland but lived in a number of cities around the world. At his death it was noted that his, "influence in the Irish poetry community, lit ...

and

Michael Longley Michael Longley, (born 27 July 1939, Belfast, Northern Ireland), is an Anglo-Irish poet. Life and career One of twin boys, Michael Longley was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to English parents, Longley was educated at the Royal Belfast A ...

. Heaney met Marie Devlin, a native of

Ardboe Ardboe () is a large parish civil parish in east County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It borders the western shore of Lough Neagh and lies within the Mid Ulster District Council area. It is also the name of the local civil parish, which incorporat ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

, while at St Joseph's in 1962; they married in August 1965. A school teacher and writer, Devlin published ''Over Nine Waves'' (1994), a collection of traditional Irish myths and legends. Heaney's first book, ''Eleven Poems,'' was published in November 1965 for the Queen's University Festival. In 1966, their first son, Michael, was born. A second son, Christopher, was born in 1968. Heaney's first major volume, ''

'', was published in 1966 by

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...

. This collection was met with much critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Gregory Award for Young Writers and the Geoffrey Faber Prize. The same year, he was appointed as a lecturer in Modern English Literature at Queen's University Belfast. In 1968, Heaney and

undertook a reading tour called ''Room to Rhyme'', which increased awareness of the poet's work. The following year, he published his second major volume, '' Door into the Dark''.

1970–1984

Heaney taught as a visiting professor in English at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in the 1970–1971 academic year. In 1972, he left his lectureship at Belfast, moved to

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has a ...

in the Republic of Ireland, and began writing on a full-time basis. That year, he published his third collection, ''

Wintering Out ''Wintering Out'' (1972) is a poetry collection by Seamus Heaney, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Importance of Place California/Liberation The volume contains poems written between 1969 and 1971. Heaney wrote much of the c ...

''. In 1975, Heaney's next volume, ''

'', was published. A pamphlet of prose poems entitled '' Stations'' was published the same year. In 1976 Heaney was appointed Head of English at

Carysfort College Our Lady of Mercy College, Carysfort (commonly known as Carysfort College) was a ''College of Education'' in Dublin, Ireland from its foundation in 1877 until its closure in 1988. Educating primary school teachers, and located in a parkland cam ...

in Dublin and moved with his family to the suburb of Sandymount. His next collection, ''

Field Work Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct f ...

'', was published in 1979. '' Selected Poems 1965-1975'' and ''Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968–1978'' were published in 1980. When ''

,'' the national Irish Arts Council, was established in 1981, Heaney was among those elected into its first group. (He was subsequently elected a ''

,'' one of its five elders and its highest honour, in 1997). Also in 1981 Heaney traveled to the United States as a visiting professor at Harvard, where he was affiliated with Adams House. He was awarded two honorary doctorates, from Queen's University and from Fordham University in New York City (1982). At the Fordham commencement ceremony on 23 May 1982, Heaney delivered his address as a 46-stanza poem entitled "Verses for a Fordham Commencement." Born and educated in Northern Ireland, Heaney stressed that he was Irish and not British. Following the success of the

Field Day Theatre Company The Field Day Theatre Company began as an artistic collaboration between playwright Brian Friel and actor Stephen Rea. In 1980, the duo set out to launch a production of Friel's recently completed play, ''Translations''. They decided to rehearse ...

's production of

Brian Friel Brian Patrick Friel (c. 9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. (subscription req ...

's ''

Translations Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

,'' the founders Brian Friel and Stephen Rea decided to make the company a permanent group. Heaney joined the company's expanded Board of Directors in 1981. In autumn 1984, his mother, Margaret, died.

1985–1999

Heaney became a tenured faculty member at Harvard, as the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory (formerly Visiting Professor) 1985–1997, and the

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

Poet in Residence at Harvard 1998–2006. In 1986, Heaney received a Litt.D. from

Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...

. His father, Patrick, died in October the same year. The loss of both parents within two years affected Heaney deeply, and he expressed his grief in poems. In 1988, a collection of his critical essays, ''The Government of the Tongue'', was published. In 1985 Heaney wrote the poem "From the Republic of Conscience" at the request of

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

Ireland. He wanted to "celebrate United Nations Day and the work of Amnesty". The poem inspired the title of Amnesty International's highest honor, the Ambassador of Conscience Award. In 1988 Heaney donated his lecture notes to th
Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Book Library
(MARBL) of

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia, after giving the notabl
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Lecture in Modern Literaturethere. In 1989 Heaney was elected Oxford Professor of Poetry, which he held for a five-year term to 1994. The chair does not require residence in Oxford. Throughout this period, he was dividing his time between Ireland and the United States. He also continued to give public readings. So well attended and keenly anticipated were these events that those who queued for tickets with such enthusiasm were sometimes dubbed "Heaneyboppers", suggesting an almost teenybopper fan base. In 1990 ''The Cure at Troy'', a play based on Sophocles's ''Philoctetes (Sophocles), Philoctetes,'' was published. The next year, he published another volume of poetry, ''Seeing Things (poetry), Seeing Things'' (1991). Heaney was named an Honorary Patron of the

University Philosophical Society The University Philosophical Society (UPS; ), commonly known as The Phil, is a student paper-reading and debating society in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1683 it is the oldest student, collegial and paper-reading society in t ...

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

(1991). In 1993 Heaney guest-edited ''

The Mays ''The Mays Literary Anthology'' (or just ''The Mays'') is an annual anthology of new writing by students from the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. History Anthologies of poetry by undergraduates from the University of Oxfor ...

Anthology'', a collection of new writing from students at the University of Oxford and

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. That same year, he was awarded the Dickinson College Arts Award and returned to the Pennsylvania college to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree. He was scheduled to return to Dickinson again to receive the Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Award—for a major literary figure—at the time of his death in 2013. Irish poet

Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon (born 20 June 1951) is an Irish poet. He has published more than thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. At Princeton University he is currently both the Howard G. B. Clark '21 University P ...

was named recipient of the award that year, partly in recognition of the close connection between the two poets. Heaney was awarded the

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

in 1995 for "works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past". He was on holiday in Greece with his wife when the news broke. Neither journalists nor his own children could reach him until he arrived at

Dublin Airport Dublin Airport (Irish: ''Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath'') is an international airport serving Dublin, Ireland. It is operated by DAA (formerly Dublin Airport Authority). The airport is located in Collinstown, north of Dublin, and south of ...

two days later, although an Irish television camera traced him to

Kalamata Kalamáta ( el, Καλαμάτα ) is the second most populous city of the Peloponnese peninsula, after Patras, in southern Greece and the largest city of the homonymous administrative region. As the capital and chief port of the Messenia regi ...

. Asked how he felt to have his name added to the Irish Nobel pantheon of

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

and

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

, Heaney responded: "It's like being a little foothill at the bottom of a mountain range. You hope you just live up to it. It's extraordinary." He and his wife Marie were immediately taken from the airport to

Áras an Uachtaráin (; "Residence of the President"), formerly the Viceregal Lodge, is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of Ireland. It is located off Chesterfield Avenue in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. The building design was credite ...

for champagne with

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Mary Robinson Mary Therese Winifred Robinson ( ga, Máire Mhic Róibín; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who was the 7th president of Ireland, serving from December 1990 to September 1997, the first woman to hold this office. Prior to her electi ...

. He would refer to the prize discreetly as "the N thing" in personal exchanges with others. Heaney's 1996 collection '' The Spirit Level'' won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award; he repeated the success in 1999 with '' Beowulf: A New Verse Translation''. Heaney was elected a Member of the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned socie ...

in 1996 and was admitted in 1997. In the same year, Heaney was elected

. In 1998, Heaney was elected Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Dublin.

2000s

In 2000, Heaney was awarded an honorary doctorate and delivered the commencement address at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. In 2002, Heaney was awarded an honorary doctorate from

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public university, public research university located in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, ...

and delivered a public lecture on "The Guttural Muse". In 2003, the

Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry The Seamus Heaney Centre is located at Queen's University Belfast, and named after the late Seamus Heaney, recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Heaney graduated from Queens in 1961 with a First Class Honours in English language and ...

was opened at Queen's University Belfast. It houses the Heaney Media Archive, a record of Heaney's entire oeuvre, along with a full catalogue of his radio and television presentations. That same year, Heaney decided to lodge a substantial portion of his literary archive at

as a memorial to the work of William M. Chace, the university's recently retired president. The Emory papers represented the largest repository of Heaney's work (1964–2003). He donated these to help build their large existing archive of material from Irish writers including Yeats,

Ciaran Carson Ciaran Gerard Carson (9 October 1948 – 6 October 2019) was a Northern Ireland-born poet and novelist. Biography Ciaran Carson was born in Belfast into an Irish-speaking family. His father, William, was a postman and his mother, Mary, w ...

and other members of the Belfast Group. In 2003, when asked if there was any figure in popular culture who aroused interest in poetry and lyrics, Heaney praised American rap artist

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

from Detroit, saying, "He has created a sense of what is possible. He has sent a voltage around a generation. He has done this not just through his subversive attitude but also his verbal energy." Heaney wrote the poem " Beacons at Bealtaine" to mark the 2004 EU Enlargement. He read the poem at a ceremony for the 25 leaders of the enlarged

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, arranged by the Irish

EU presidency The official title President of the European Union (or President of Europe) does not exist, but there are a number of presidents of European Union institutions, including: * the President of the European Council (since 1 December 2019, Charle ...

. In August 2006, Heaney suffered a stroke. Although he recovered and joked, "Blessed are the pacemakers" when fitted with a heart monitor,"Heaney bid farewell at funeral"
''Belfast Telegraph'', 2 September 2013. he cancelled all public engagements for several months. He was in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

at the time of the 75th birthday of Anne Friel, wife of playwright

. He read the works of

Henning Mankell Henning Georg Mankell (; 3February 19485October 2015) was a Swedish crime writer, children's author, and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most noted creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander. He also wrote a number ...

Donna Leon Donna Leon (; born in Montclair, New Jersey) is the American author of a series of crime novels set in Venice, Italy, featuring the fictional hero Commissario Guido Brunetti. In 2003, she received the Corine Literature Prize. Leon lived in Veni ...

and Robert Harris while in hospital. Among his visitors was former President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

. Heaney's ''

District and Circle ''District and Circle'' is a poetry collection by Seamus Heaney, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. It was published in 2006 and won the 2006 T. S. Eliot Prize, the most prestigious poetry award in the UK. The collection also won ...

'' won the 2006 T. S. Eliot Prize. In 2008, he became artist of honour in

Østermarie Østermarie is a village on the Danish island of Bornholm, west of Svaneke. Founded ca. 1880, its old church ('' Østermarie Church''), now a ruin, dates back to the 12th century.

, Denmark, and Seamus Heaney Stræde (street) was named after him. In 2009, Heaney was presented with an Honorary-Life Membership award from the

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

(UCD) Law Society, in recognition of his remarkable role as a literary figure.

published

Dennis O'Driscoll Dennis O'Driscoll (1 January 1954 – 24 December 2012) was an Irish poet, essayist, critic and editor. Regarded as one of the best European poets of his time, Eileen Battersby considered him "the lyric equivalent of William Trevor" and a ...

's book '' Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney'' in 2008; this has been described as the nearest thing to an autobiography of Heaney. In 2009, Heaney was awarded the

David Cohen Prize The David Cohen Prize for Literature (est. 1993) is a British literary award given to a writer, novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist or dramatist in recognition of an entire body of work, written in the English language. The prize is funde ...

for Literature. He recorded a spoken word album, over 12 hours long, of himself reading his poetry collections to commemorate his 70th birthday, which occurred on 13 April 2009.

2010s

He spoke at the West Belfast Festival in July 2010 in celebration of his mentor, the poet and novelist

Michael McLaverty Michael McLaverty (5 July 1904 – 22 March 1992) was an Irish writer of novels and short stories.Human Chain'', Heaney's twelfth collection. ''Human Chain'' was awarded the

Forward Poetry Prize The Forward Prizes for Poetry are major British awards for poetry, presented annually at a public ceremony in London. They were founded in 1992 by William Sieghart with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing its audience. The ...

for Best Collection, one of the major poetry prizes Heaney had never previously won, despite having been twice shortlisted. The book, published 44 years after the poet's first, was inspired in part by Heaney's stroke in 2006, which left him "babyish" and "on the brink". Poet and Forward judge

Ruth Padel Ruth Sophia Padel FRSL FZS is a British poet, novelist and non-fiction author, known for her poetic explorations of migration, both animal and human, and her involvement with classical music, wildlife conservation and Greece, ancient and modern. ...

described the work as "a collection of painful, honest and delicately weighted poems ... a wonderful and humane achievement." Writer

Colm Tóibín Colm Tóibín (, approximately ; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. His first novel, '' The South'', was published in 1990. '' The Blackwater Lightship'' was shortlis ...

described ''Human Chain'' as "his best single volume for many years, and one that contains some of the best poems he has written... is a book of shades and memories, of things whispered, of journeys into the underworld, of elegies and translations, of echoes and silences." In October 2010, the collection was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. Heaney was named one of "Britain's top 300 intellectuals" by ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' in 2011, though the newspaper later published a correction acknowledging that "several individuals who would not claim to be British" had been featured, of which Heaney was one. That same year, he contributed translations of

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writt ...

marginalia for ''

Songs of the Scribe ''Songs of the Scribe'' is the seventh studio album from Irish singer Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin, who is also Traditional Singer in Residence at the Seamus Heaney Centre For Poetry at Queen's University, Belfast. Released on 3 December 2011, th ...

'', an album by Traditional Singer in Residence of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry,

Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin Pádraigín Máire Ní Uallacháin () is an Irish singer-songwriter, academic, and former newsreader

. In December 2011, he donated his personal literary notes to the

National Library of Ireland The National Library of Ireland (NLI; ga, Leabharlann Náisiúnta na hÉireann) is the Republic of Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The mission of the National Library of Ireland i ...

. Even though he admitted he would likely have earned a fortune by auctioning them, Heaney personally packed up the boxes of notes and drafts and, accompanied by his son Michael, delivered them to the National Library. In June 2012, Heaney accepted the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry's Lifetime Recognition Award and gave a speech in honour of the award. Heaney was compiling a collection of his work in anticipation of ''Selected Poems 1988–2013'' at the time of his death. The selection includes poems and writings from ''Seeing Things'', ''The Spirit Level'', the translation of ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...

'', ''Electric Light'', ''District and Circle'', and ''Human Chain'' (fall 2014). In February 2014,

premiered ''Seamus Heaney: The Music of What Happens'', the first major exhibition to celebrate the life and work of Seamus Heaney since his death. The exhibit holds a display of the surface of Heaney's personal writing desk that he used in the 1980s as well as old photographs and personal correspondence with other writers. Heaney died in August 2013, during the exhibition's curatorial process. Though the exhibit's original vision to celebrate Heaney's life and work remains at the forefront, there is a small section commemorating his death and its influence. In September 2015, it was announced that Heaney's family would posthumously publish his translation of Book VI of

The Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the ...

in 2016.

Death

Seamus Heaney died in the

Blackrock Clinic Blackrock Clinic ( ga, Clinic na Carraige Duibhe) is a private hospital in Blackrock, Dublin. It is associated with both the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and University College Dublin. History The hospital was founded by surgeons Jos ...

in Dublin on 30 August 2013, aged 74, following a short illness.HEANEY, Seamus : Death notice
''The Irish Times'', 30 September 2013.
Sunday Independent, 1 September 2013. After a fall outside a restaurant in Dublin, he entered hospital for a medical procedure, but died at 7:30 the following morning before it took place. His funeral was held in Donnybrook, Dublin, on the morning of 2 September 2013, and he was buried in the evening at his home village of

, in the same graveyard as his parents, young brother, and other family members. His son Michael revealed at the funeral mass that his father texted his final words, "''Noli timere''" (Latin: "Be not afraid"), to his wife, Marie, minutes before he died. His funeral was broadcast live the following day on RTÉ television and radio and was streamed internationally at RTÉ's website.

RTÉ Radio 1 Extra RTÉ Radio 1 Extra is a digital radio station produced by the Irish public-service broadcasting service Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). History Initially launched on 1 December 2008 as RTÉ Choice alongside five other new digital channels ...

transmitted a continuous broadcast, from 8 a.m. to 9:15 p.m. on the day of the funeral, of his '' Collected Poems'' album, recorded by Heaney in 2009. His poetry collections sold out rapidly in Irish bookshops immediately following his death. Many tributes were paid to Heaney. President

Michael D. Higgins Michael Daniel Higgins ( ga, Mícheál Dónal Ó hUigínn; born 18 April 1941) is an Irish politician, poet, sociologist, and broadcaster, who has served as the ninth president of Ireland since November 2011. Entering national politics throug ...

said:

...we in Ireland will once again get a sense of the depth and range of the contribution of Seamus Heaney to our contemporary world, but what those of us who have had the privilege of his friendship and presence will miss is the extraordinary depth and warmth of his personality...Generations of Irish people will have been familiar with Seamus' poems. Scholars all over the world will have gained from the depth of the critical essays, and so many rights organisations will want to thank him for all the solidarity he gave to the struggles within the republic of conscience.

President Higgins also appeared live from

on the ''Nine O'Clock News'' in a five-minute segment in which he paid tribute to Seamus Heaney.

, former President of the United States, said:

Both his stunning work and his life were a gift to the world. His mind, heart, and his uniquely Irish gift for language made him our finest poet of the rhythms of ordinary lives and a powerful voice for peace...His wonderful work, like that of his fellow Irish Nobel Prize winners Shaw, Yeats, and Beckett, will be a lasting gift for all the world.Tributes to Seamus Heaney
BBC News Northern Ireland, 30 August 2013.

José Manuel Barroso José Manuel Durão Barroso (; born 23 March 1956) is a Portuguese politician and university teacher, currently serving as non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International. He previously served as the 11th president of the European Commi ...

, European Commission president, said:

I am greatly saddened today to learn of the death of Seamus Heaney, one of the great European poets of our lifetime. ... The strength, beauty and character of his words will endure for generations to come and were rightly recognised with the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Harvard University issued a statement:

We are fortunate and proud to have counted Seamus Heaney as a revered member of the Harvard family. For us, as for people around the world, he epitomised the poet as a wellspring of humane insight and artful imagination, subtle wisdom and shining grace. We will remember him with deep affection and admiration.

Poet

, a close friend of Heaney, said: "I feel like I've lost a brother."

Thomas Kinsella Thomas Kinsella (4 May 192822 December 2021) was an Irish poet, translator, editor, and publisher. Born outside Dublin, Kinsella attended University College Dublin before entering the civil service. He began publishing poetry in the early 1950s ...

said he was shocked, but John Montague said he had known for some time that the poet was not well. Playwright

Frank McGuinness Professor Frank McGuinness (born 1953) is an Irish writer. As well as his own plays, which include '' The Factory Girls'', ''Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme'', '' Someone Who'll Watch Over Me'' and ''Dolly West's Kitchen'' ...

called Heaney "the greatest Irishman of my generation: he had no rivals."

wrote: "In a time of burnings and bombings Heaney used poetry to offer an alternative world."

Gerald Dawe Gerald Dawe (born 1952) is an Irish poet. Early life Gerald Dawe was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and grew up with his mother, sister and grandmother. He attended Orangefield High School across the city in East Belfast, a leading progres ...

said he was "like an older brother who encouraged you to do the best you could do".

Theo Dorgan Theo Dorgan (born 1953) is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer, translator, librettist and documentary screenwriter. He lives in Dublin. Life Dorgan was born in Cork in 1953 being second child born into a family of 8 boys and 8 girls to pare ...

said, " eaney'swork will pass into permanence. Everywhere I go there is real shock at this. Seamus was one of us." His publisher,

, noted that "his impact on literary culture is immeasurable." Playwright

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...

said, "Seamus never had a sour moment, neither in person nor on paper". Andrew Motion, a former UK Poet Laureate and friend of Heaney, called him "a great poet, a wonderful writer about poetry, and a person of truly exceptional grace and intelligence." Many memorial events were held, including a commemoration at Emory University, Harvard University, Oxford University and the Southbank Centre, London. Leading US poetry organisations also met in New York to commemorate the death.

Work

Naturalism

At one time, Heaney's books made up two-thirds of the sales of living poets in the UK. His work often deals with the local surroundings of Ireland, particularly in Northern Ireland, where he was born and lived until young adulthood. Speaking of his early life and education, he commented, "I learned that my local County Derry experience, which I had considered archaic and irrelevant to 'the modern world', was to be trusted. They taught me that trust and helped me to articulate it." ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966) and ''Door into the Dark'' (1969) mostly focus on the details of rural, parochial life. In a number of volumes, beginning with ''Door into the Dark'' (1969) and ''Wintering Out'' (1972), Heaney also spent a significant amount of time writing on the northern Irish bog. Particularly of note is the collection of bog body poems in ''North'' (1975), featuring mangled bodies preserved in the bog. In a review by Ciaran Carson, he said that the bog poems made Heaney into "the laureate of violence—a mythmaker, an anthropologist of ritual killing...the world of megalithic doorways and charming noble barbarity." Poems such as "Bogland" and "Bog Queen" addressed political struggles directly for the first time.

Politics

Allusions to sectarian difference, widespread in Northern Ireland through his lifetime, can be found in his poems. His books ''Wintering Out'' (1973) and ''North'' (1975) seek to interweave commentary on

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

with a historical context and wider human experience. While some critics accused Heaney of being "an apologist and a mythologiser" of the violence, Blake Morrison suggests the poet

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... 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.

Shaun O'Connell in the ''New Boston Review'' notes that "those who see Seamus Heaney as a symbol of hope in a troubled land are not, of course, wrong to do so, though they may be missing much of the undercutting complexities of his poetry, the backwash of ironies which make him as bleak as he is bright." O'Connell notes in his ''Boston Review'' critique of ''

Station Island St Patrick's Purgatory is an ancient pilgrimage site on Station Island in Lough Derg, County Donegal, Ireland. According to legend, the site dates from the fifth century, when Christ showed Saint Patrick a cave, sometimes referred to as a p ...

'':

Again and again Heaney pulls back from political purposes; despite its emblems of savagery, ''Station Island'' lends no rhetorical comfort to Republicanism. Politic about politics, ''Station Island'' is less about a united Ireland than about a poet seeking religious and aesthetic unity.

Heaney is described by critic

Terry Eagleton Terence Francis Eagleton (born 22 February 1943) is an English literary theorist, critic, and public intellectual. He is currently Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University. Eagleton has published over forty books, ...

as "an enlightened cosmopolitan liberal", refusing to be drawn. Eagleton suggests: "When the political is introduced... it is only in the context of what Heaney will or will not say." Reflections on what Heaney identifies as "tribal conflict" favour the description of people's lives and their voices, drawing out the "psychic landscape". His collections often recall the assassinations of his family members and close friends, lynchings and bombings.

wrote, "throughout his career there have been poems of simple evocation and description. His refusal to sum up or offer meaning is part of his tact." Heaney published "Requiem for the Croppies", a poem that commemorates the Irish rebels of 1798, on the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. He read the poem to both Catholic and Protestant audiences in Ireland. He commented, "To read 'Requiem for the Croppies' wasn't to say ‘up the

IRA Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

’ or anything. It was silence-breaking rather than rabble-rousing." He stated, "You don't have to love it. You just have to permit it." He turned down the offer of laureateship of the United Kingdom, partly for political reasons, commenting, "I’ve nothing against the Queen personally: I had lunch at

the Palace ''The Palace'' is a British drama television series that aired on ITV in 2008. Produced by Company Pictures for the ITV network, it was created by Tom Grieves and follows a fictional British Royal Family in the aftermath of the death of King ...

once upon a time." He stated that his "cultural starting point" was "off-centre". A much-quoted statement was when he objected to being included in ''

The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry ''The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry'' is a poetry anthology edited by Blake Morrison and Andrew Motion, and published in 1982 by Penguin Books. Shortly after its publication, Morrison acknowledged the criticisms made towards th ...

'' (1982). Although he was born in Northern Ireland, his response to being included in the British anthology was delivered in his poem "An Open Letter": :Don't be surprised if I demur, for, be advised :My passport's green. :No glass of ours was ever raised :To toast The Queen.

Translation

He was concerned, as a poet and a translator, with the English language as it is spoken in Ireland but also as spoken elsewhere and in other times; he explored Anglo-Saxon influences in his work and study. Critic W. S. Di Piero noted

Whatever the occasion, childhood, farm life, politics and culture in Northern Ireland, other poets past and present, Heaney strikes time and again at the taproot of language, examining its genetic structures, trying to discover how it has served, in all its changes, as a culture bearer, a world to contain imaginations, at once a rhetorical weapon and nutriment of spirit. He writes of these matters with rare discrimination and resourcefulness, and a winning impatience with received wisdom.

Heaney's first translation was of the Irish lyric poem ''

Buile Suibhne ''Buile Shuibhne'' or ''Buile Suibne'' (, ''The Madness of Suibhne'' or ''Suibhne's Frenzy'') is a medieval Irish tale about Suibhne mac Colmáin, king of the Dál nAraidi, who was driven insane by the curse of Saint Rónán Finn. The insanity ma ...

'', published as ''Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish'' (1984). He took up this character and connection in poems published in ''Station Island'' (1984). Heaney's prize-winning translation of ''

'' (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000, Whitbread Book of the Year Award) was considered groundbreaking in its use of modern language melded with the original Anglo-Saxon "music".

Plays and prose

His plays include ''The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes'' (1991). Heaney's 2004 play, ''

The Burial at Thebes ''The Burial at Thebes: A version of Sophocles' Antigone'' is a play by Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, based on the fifth century BC tragedy ''Antigone'' by Sophocles. It is also an opera by Dominique Le Gendre. Plot Antigone, the daughte ...

,'' suggests parallels between

Creon Creon may refer to: Greek history * Creon, the first annual eponymous archon of Athens, 682–681 BC Greek mythology * Creon (king of Thebes), mythological king of Thebes * Creon (king of Corinth), father of Creusa/Glauce in Euripides' ''Medea' ...

and the foreign policies of the Bush administration. Heaney's engagement with poetry as a necessary engine for cultural and personal change is reflected in his prose works ''The Redress of Poetry'' (1995) and ''Finders Keepers: Selected Prose, 1971–2001'' (2002).

"When a poem rhymes," Heaney wrote, "when a form generates itself, when a metre provokes consciousness into new postures, it is already on the side of life. When a rhyme surprises and extends the fixed relations between words, that in itself protests against necessity. When language does more than enough, as it does in all achieved poetry, it opts for the condition of overlife, and rebels at limit."

He continues: "The vision of reality which poetry offers should be transformative, more than just a printout of the given circumstances of its time and place". Often overlooked and underestimated in the direction of his work is his profound poetic debts to and critical engagement with 20th-century Eastern European poets, and in particular Nobel laureate

Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, ...

Use in the school syllabus

Heaney's work is used extensively in the school syllabus internationally, including the anthologies ''The Rattle Bag'' (1982) and ''The School Bag'' (1997) (both edited with

). Originally entitled ''The Faber Book of Verse for Younger People'' on the Faber contract, Hughes and Heaney decided the main purpose of ''The Rattle Bag'' was to offer enjoyment to the reader: "Arbitrary riches." Heaney commented "the book in our heads was something closer to ''The Fancy Free Poetry Supplement.''" It included work that they would have liked to encountered sooner in their own lives, as well as nonsense rhymes, ballad-type poems, riddles, folk songs and rhythmical jingles. Much familiar canonical work was not included, since they took it for granted that their audience would know the standard fare. Fifteen years later, ''The School Bag'' aimed at something different. The foreword stated that they wanted "less of a carnival, more like a checklist." It included poems in English, Irish, Welsh, Scots and Scots Gaelic, together with work reflecting the African-American experience.

Legacy

The ''Seamus Heaney HomePlace'', in Bellaghy, is a literary and arts centre which commemorates Heaney's legacy. In 2017, it was announced that following an approach by the writer to the Heaney family,

Fintan O'Toole Fintan O'Toole (born 16 February 1958) is a polemicist, literary editor, journalist and drama critic for ''The Irish Times'', for which he has written since 1988. O'Toole was drama critic for the '' New York Daily News'' from 1997 to 2001 and ...

had been authorised to write a biography of the poet, with access to family-held records. O'Toole had been somewhat acquainted with Heaney, and Heaney had, according to his son, admired O'Toole's work. His literary papers are held by the

. In November 2019, the documentary ''Seamus Heaney and the music of what happens'' was aired on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

. His wife Marie and his children talked about their family life and read some of the poems he wrote for them. For the first time, Heaney's four brothers remembered their childhood and the shared experiences that inspired many of his finest poems.

Publications

Poetry: main collections

* 1966: ''

'', Faber & Faber * 1969: '' Door into the Dark'', Faber & Faber * 1972: ''

'', Faber & Faber * 1975: ''

'', Faber & Faber * 1979: ''

'', Faber & Faber * 1984: ''

'', Faber & Faber * 1987: '' The Haw Lantern'', Faber & Faber * 1991: '' Seeing Things'', Faber & Faber * 1996: '' The Spirit Level'', Faber & Faber * 2001: ''

Electric Light An electric light, lamp, or light bulb is an electrical component that produces light. It is the most common form of artificial lighting. Lamps usually have a base made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic, which secures the lamp in the soc ...

'', Faber & Faber * 2006: ''

'', Faber & Faber * 2010: '' Human Chain'', Faber & Faber

Poetry: selected editions

* 1980: '' Selected Poems 1965–1975'', Faber & Faber * 1990: ''

New Selected Poems 1966–1987 ''New Selected Poems 1966–1987'' is a poetry collection by Seamus Heaney, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. It was published in 1990 (see 1990 in poetry) by Faber and Faber. It includes selections from each of Heaney's seven first ...

'', Faber & Faber * 1998: '' Opened Ground: Poems 1966–1996'', Faber & Faber * 2014: ''

New Selected Poems 1988–2013 New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

'', Faber & Faber * 2018: '' 100 Poems'', Faber & Faber

Prose: main collections

* 1980: ''Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968–1978'', Faber & Faber * 1988: ''The Government of the Tongue'', Faber & Faber * 1995: ''The Redress of Poetry: Oxford Lectures'', Faber & Faber

Prose: selected editions

* 2002: ''Finders Keepers: Selected Prose 1971–2001'', Faber & Faber

Plays

* 1990: '' The Cure at Troy: A version of Sophocles' Philoctetes'', Field Day * 2004: '' The Burial at Thebes: A version of Sophocles' Antigone'', Faber & Faber

Translations

* 1983: '' Sweeney Astray: A version from the Irish'', Field Day * 1992: '' Sweeney's Flight'' (with

Rachel Giese Rachel Giese is a Canadian journalist, who won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing in 2019 for her book ''Boys: What It Means to Become a Man''. Currently the editorial director of LGBT news website ''Daily Xtra'', her work has also a ...

, photographer), Faber & Faber * 1993: ''The Midnight Verdict'': Translations from the Irish of Brian Merriman and from the ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the wo ...

'' of

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

, Gallery Press * 1995: ''

Laments A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...

'', a cycle of Polish Renaissance elegies by

Jan Kochanowski Jan Kochanowski (; 1530 – 22 August 1584) was a Polish Renaissance poet who established poetic patterns that would become integral to the Polish literary language. He is commonly regarded as the greatest Polish poet before Adam Mickiewicz. ...

, translated with

Stanisław Barańczak Stanisław Barańczak (, November 13, 1946December 26, 2014) was a Polish poet, literary critic, scholar, editor, translator and lecturer. He is perhaps most well known for his English-to- Polish translations of the dramas of William Shakespeare a ...

, Faber & Faber * 1999: '' Beowulf: A New Verse Translation'', Faber & Faber * 1999: ''Diary of One Who Vanished'', a song cycle by

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European f ...

of poems by Ozef Kalda, Faber & Faber * 2009: ''The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables'', Faber & Faber * 2016: ''Aeneid: Book VI'', Faber & Faber

Limited editions and booklets (poetry, prose, and translations)

* 1965: ''Eleven Poems'', Queen's University * 1968: ''The Island People'', BBC * 1968: ''Room to Rhyme'', Arts Council N.I. * 1969: ''A Lough Neagh Sequence'', Phoenix * 1970: ''Night Drive'', Gilbertson * 1970: ''A Boy Driving His Father to Confession'', Sceptre Press * 1973: ''Explorations'', BBC * 1975: ''Stations'', Ulsterman Publications * 1975: ''Bog Poems'', Rainbow Press * 1975: ''The Fire i' the Flint'', Oxford University Press * 1976: ''Four Poems'', Crannog Press * 1977: ''Glanmore Sonnets'', Editions Monika Beck * 1977: ''In Their Element'', Arts Council N.I. * 1978: ''Robert Lowell: A Memorial Address and an Elegy'', Faber & Faber * 1978: ''The Makings of a Music'', University of Liverpool * 1978: ''After Summer'', Gallery Press * 1979: ''Hedge School'', Janus Press * 1979: ''Ugolino'', Carpenter Press * 1979: ''Gravities'', Charlotte Press * 1979: ''A Family Album'', Byron Press * 1980: ''Toome'', National College of Art and Design * 1981: ''Sweeney Praises the Trees'', Henry Pearson * 1982: ''A Personal Selection'', Ulster Museum * 1982: ''Poems and a Memoir'', Limited Editions Club * 1983: ''An Open Letter'', Field Day * 1983: ''Among Schoolchildren'', Queen's University * 1984: ''Verses for a Fordham Commencement'', Nadja Press * 1984: ''Hailstones'', Gallery Press * 1985: ''From the Republic of Conscience'', Amnesty International * 1985: ''Place and Displacement'', Dove Cottage * 1985: ''Towards a Collaboration'', Arts Council N.I. * 1986: ''Clearances'', Cornamona Press * 1988: ''Readings in Contemporary Poetry'', DIA Art Foundation * 1988: ''The Sounds of Rain'', Emory University * 1988: ''The Dark Wood'', Colin Smythe * 1989: ''An Upstairs Outlook'', Linen Hall Library * 1989: ''The Place of Writing'', Emory University * 1990: ''The Tree Clock'', Linen Hall Library * 1991: ''Squarings'', Hieroglyph Editions * 1992: ''Dylan the Durable'', Bennington College * 1992: ''The Gravel Walks'', Lenoir Rhyne College * 1992: ''The Golden Bough'', Bonnefant Press * 1993: ''Keeping Going'', Bow and Arrow Press * 1993: ''Joy or Night'', University of Swansea * 1994: ''Extending the Alphabet'', Memorial University of Newfoundland * 1994: ''Speranza in Reading'', University of Tasmania * 1995: ''Oscar Wilde Dedication'', Westminster Abbey * 1995: ''Charles Montgomery Monteith'', All Souls College * 1995: ''Crediting Poetry: The Nobel Lecture'', Gallery Press * 1996: ''Commencement Address'', UNC Chapel Hill * 1997: ''Poet to Blacksmith'', Pim Witteveen * 1997: ''An After Dinner Speech'', Atlantic Foundation * 1998: ''Audenesque'', Maeght * 1999: ''The Light of the Leaves'', Bonnefant Press * 1999: ''Ballynahinch Lake'', Sonzogni * 2001: ''Something to Write Home About'', Flying Fox * 2001: ''Towers, Trees, Terrors'', Università degli Studi di Urbino * 2002: ''The Whole Thing: on the Good of Poetry'', The Recorder * 2002: ''Hope and History'', Rhodes University * 2002: ''A Keen for the Coins'', Lenoir Rhyne College * 2002: ''Hallaig'', Sorley MacLean Trust * 2002: ''Arion'', a poem by

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

, translated from the Russian, with a note by Olga Carlisle, Arion Press * 2003: ''Eclogues in Extremis'', Royal Irish Academy * 2003: ''Squarings'', Arion Press * 2004: ''Anything can Happen'', Town House Publishers * 2004: ''Room to Rhyme'', University of Dundee * 2004: ''

The Testament of Cresseid ''The Testament of Cresseid'' is a narrative poem of 616 lines in Middle Scots, written by the 15th-century Scottish makar Robert Henryson. It is his best known poem. It imagines a tragic fate for Cressida in the medieval story of ''Troilu ...

'', Enitharmon Press * 2004: ''Columcille The Scribe'', The Royal Irish Academy * 2005: ''A Tribute to Michael McLaverty'', Linen Hall Library * 2005: ''The Door Stands Open'', Irish Writers Centre * 2005: ''A Shiver'',

Clutag Press The Clutag Press was established in 2000 as a venture by Andrew McNeillie to issue Clutag Poetry Leaflets, by established and emerging poets. In 2004, it received backing from The Christopher Tower Fund (in association with Christ Church, Oxfo ...

* 2007: ''The Riverbank Field'', Gallery Press * 2008: ''Articulations'', Royal Irish Academy * 2008: ''One on a Side'', Robert Frost Foundation * 2009: ''Spelling It Out'', Gallery Press * 2010: ''Writer & Righter'', Irish Human Rights Commission * 2012: ''Stone From Delphi'', Arion Press * 2013: ''The Last Walk'', Gallery Press * 2019: ''My Yeats'', Yeats Society Sligo

Spoken word

* 2009: ''Collected Poems'' (audio recording by Heaney), RTÉ with the

Lannan Foundation The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...

Prizes and honours

* 1966

Eric Gregory Award The Eric Gregory Award is a literary award given annually by the Society of Authors for a collection by British poets under the age of 30. The award was founded in 1960 by Dr. Eric Gregory to support and encourage young poets. In 2021, the seven ...

* 1967

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards () are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has be ...

* 1968

Somerset Maugham Award The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors. Set up by William Somerset Maugham in 1947 the awards enable young writers to enrich their work by gaining experience in foreign countries. The awa ...

* 1968

* 1975 E. M. Forster Award * 1975

Duff Cooper Prize The Duff Cooper Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of history, biography, political science or occasionally poetry, published in English or French. The prize was established in honour of Duff Cooper, a British diplomat, Ca ...

for ''

'' * 1995

* 1996 Commandeur de l' Ordre des Arts et des Lettres * 1997 Elected

* 1998 St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates *2000 Elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

* 2001 Golden Wreath of Poetry, given by

Struga Poetry Evenings Struga Poetry Evenings (SPE) ( mk, Струшки вечери на поезијата, СВП; tr. ''Struški večeri na poezijata'', ''SVP'') is an international poetry festival held annually in Struga, North Macedonia. During the several de ...

for life achievement in the field of poetry * 200
Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement
* 2005

Irish PEN Award Irish PEN Award for Literature is an annual literary award presented by Irish PEN since 1999. Its intent is to honour an Irish-born writer who has made an outstanding contribution to Irish literature. The award is for a significant body of work an ...

* 2006 T. S. Eliot Prize for ''

'' * 2007

Poetry Now Award The Poetry Now Award is an annual literary prize presented for the best single volume of poetry by an Irish poet. The €5,000 award was first given in 2005 (reduced to €2,500 in 2013) and is presented during annual Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown ...

for ''District and Circle'' * 2009

* 2011

for '' Human Chain''Heaney wins 'Irish Times' poetry award
, ''Irish Times'', 26 March 2011. * 2011 Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award * 2012

, Lifetime Recognition Award

References

External links

* including the Nobel Lecture on 7 December 1995 ''Crediting Poetry'' * *
Seamus Heaney
at the Poetry Foundation
Seamus Heaney
at the Poetry Archive
Seamus Heaney
at the Academy for American Poets *
BBC Your Paintings in partnership PCF
Painting by Peter Edwards * *
Lannan Foundation reading and conversation
with Dennis O'Driscoll, 1 October 2003. (Audio / video – 40 mins)
Prose transcript

1998 Whiting Writers' Award Keynote Speech

Seamus Heaney: Man of Words and Grace
November–December 2013.

''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. 15 October 2008.