On Seamus Heaney

On Seamus Heaney
Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Total Pages : 248
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780691174372
ISBN-13 : 0691174377
Rating : 4/5 (377 Downloads)

Book Synopsis On Seamus Heaney by : Robert Fitzroy Foster

Download or read book On Seamus Heaney written by Robert Fitzroy Foster and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Seamus Heaney was the leading Irish poet of the second half of the twentieth century, and, after W. B. Yeats, arguably the most significant poet in the history of Irish literature. When he died in 2013 the public reaction in Ireland was extraordinary, and the outpouring of feeling decisively demonstrated that he occupied an exceptional place in national life. The words of his last message to his wife, 'Noli timere', 'Don't be afraid', appeared over and over again on social media, while key phrases from favourite poems became and have remained canonical. In this short book, conceived for the Writers on Writers series, historian Roy Foster offers an extended and largley chronological reflection upon Heaney's life, work and historical context, from the poet's origins in Northern Ireland and the publication of Death of a Naturalist in 1966, through the explosive impact of his 1975 collection North, and then into his years as a 'world poet' and an Irish writer with a powerful influence on English literature generally. Foster considers virtually all of Heaney's major output, including later volumes such as The Spirit Level and Human Chain, as well as Heaney's translation of Beowulf and his renderings from Virgil. Throughout the book, Foster conveys something of Heaney's charismatic, expansive and subtle personality, as well as the impact of his work in both the USA and in Europe. Certain themes emerge throughout, such as the way Heaney maintained a deceptive simplicity throughout his writing career, his relations with classical literature and the poetry of dissidence in Eastern Europe, and the increasing presence of the unseen and even spiritual in his later work. Foster also highlights Heaney's importance as a critic and the largely unacknowledged ways in which his own trajectory echoed that of the life and work of Yeats. Though Heaney evaded direct comparisons with his Nobel-prizewinning predecessor, he personified the quality which he attributed to Yeats: 'the gift of establishing authority within a culture'. Both poets made a challenging and oblique use of autobiography and personal history in their work, and both sustained a very particular and sometimes contested relation to the life of their country. Foster shows us that Heaney, like Yeats, came to personify and express the Ireland of his time with unique force and resonance"--


On Seamus Heaney Related Books

On Seamus Heaney
Language: en
Pages: 248
Authors: Robert Fitzroy Foster
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-08-25 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Seamus Heaney was the leading Irish poet of the second half of the twentieth century, and, after W. B. Yeats, arguably the most significant poet in the history
100 Poems
Language: en
Pages: 175
Authors: Seamus Heaney
Categories: Poetry
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-08-20 - Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Selected poems from a Nobel laureate In 100 Poems, readers will enjoy the most loved and celebrated poems, and will discover new favorites, from "The Cure at Tr
Seamus Heaney
Language: en
Pages: 212
Authors: Helen Vendler
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2000 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Join Professor Helen Vendler in her course lecture on the Yeats poem "Among School Children." View her insightful and passionate analysis along with a condensed
Stepping Stones
Language: en
Pages: 576
Authors: Dennis O'Driscoll
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-12-09 - Publisher: Macmillan

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Chronicles the life of twentieth-century Irish poet Seamus Heaney, from his infancy to his Nobel Prize in 1995, and also discusses his post-Nobel life, family,
Field Work
Language: en
Pages: 73
Authors: Seamus Heaney
Categories: Poetry
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-01-13 - Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Field Work is the record of four years during which Seamus Heaney left the violence of Belfast to settle in a country cottage with his family in Glanmore, Count