Bill Clinton, 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."[75]
José Manuel Barroso, 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."[75]
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."[75]
Poet Michael Longley, a close friend of Heaney, said: "I feel like I've lost a brother."[76] Thomas Kinsella said he was shocked, but John Montague said he had known for some time that the poet was not well.[77] Playwright Frank McGuinness called Heaney "the greatest Irishman of my generation: he had no rivals."[78] Colm Tóibín wrote: "In a time of burnings and bombings Heaney used poetry to offer an alternative world."[79] Gerald Dawe said he was "like an older brother who encouraged you to do the best you could do."[78] Theo Dorgan said, "[Heaney's] work will pass into permanence." Everywhere I go there is real shock at this. Seamus was one of us." His publisher, Faber and Faber, noted that "his impact on literary culture is immeasurable."[80] Playwright Tom Stoppard said, "Seamus never had a sour moment, neither in person nor on paper".[78] 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."
• A Roman Catholic native of Northern Ireland, Mr. Heaney was renowned for work that powerfully evoked the beauty and blood that together have come to define the modern Irish condition. The author of more than a dozen collections of poetry, as well as critical essays and works for the stage, he repeatedly explored the strife and uncertainties that have afflicted his homeland, while managing simultaneously to steer clear of polemic
• Seamus Justin Heaney, MRIA (/ˈʃeɪməs ˈhiːni/; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright, translator and lecturer, and the recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.[1][2] In the early 1960s, he became a lecturer in Belfast after attending university there and began to publish poetry. He lived in Sandymount, Dublin, from 1976 until his death.[2][3][4] Heaney was recognized as one of the principal contributors to poetry during his lifetime. Heaney was a professor at Harvard 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 and, in 1996, was made a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres. Other awards that he received include the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize(1968), the E. M. Forster Award (1975), the PEN Translation Prize (1985), the Golden Wreath of Poetry (2001), the T. S. Eliot Prize(2006) and two Whitbread Prizes (1996 and 1999).[5][6] In 2011, he was awarded the Griffin Poetry Prize and in 2012, a Lifetime Recognition Award from the Griffin Trust. His literary papers are held by the National Library of Ireland.
Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland, have echoed the sentiment that he was "the greatest poet of our age".[5][6] Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller."[7] Upon his death in 2013, The Independent described him as "probably the best-known poet in the world."[8]
"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."[75]
José Manuel Barroso, 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."[75]
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."[75]
Poet Michael Longley, a close friend of Heaney, said: "I feel like I've lost a brother."[76] Thomas Kinsella said he was shocked, but John Montague said he had known for some time that the poet was not well.[77] Playwright Frank McGuinness called Heaney "the greatest Irishman of my generation: he had no rivals."[78] Colm Tóibín wrote: "In a time of burnings and bombings Heaney used poetry to offer an alternative world."[79] Gerald Dawe said he was "like an older brother who encouraged you to do the best you could do."[78] Theo Dorgan said, "[Heaney's] work will pass into permanence." Everywhere I go there is real shock at this. Seamus was one of us." His publisher, Faber and Faber, noted that "his impact on literary culture is immeasurable."[80] Playwright Tom Stoppard said, "Seamus never had a sour moment, neither in person nor on paper".[78] 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."
• A Roman Catholic native of Northern Ireland, Mr. Heaney was renowned for work that powerfully evoked the beauty and blood that together have come to define the modern Irish condition. The author of more than a dozen collections of poetry, as well as critical essays and works for the stage, he repeatedly explored the strife and uncertainties that have afflicted his homeland, while managing simultaneously to steer clear of polemic
• Seamus Justin Heaney, MRIA (/ˈʃeɪməs ˈhiːni/; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright, translator and lecturer, and the recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.[1][2] In the early 1960s, he became a lecturer in Belfast after attending university there and began to publish poetry. He lived in Sandymount, Dublin, from 1976 until his death.[2][3][4] Heaney was recognized as one of the principal contributors to poetry during his lifetime. Heaney was a professor at Harvard 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 and, in 1996, was made a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres. Other awards that he received include the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize(1968), the E. M. Forster Award (1975), the PEN Translation Prize (1985), the Golden Wreath of Poetry (2001), the T. S. Eliot Prize(2006) and two Whitbread Prizes (1996 and 1999).[5][6] In 2011, he was awarded the Griffin Poetry Prize and in 2012, a Lifetime Recognition Award from the Griffin Trust. His literary papers are held by the National Library of Ireland.
Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland, have echoed the sentiment that he was "the greatest poet of our age".[5][6] Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller."[7] Upon his death in 2013, The Independent described him as "probably the best-known poet in the world."[8]
“Irish strain is Seamus Heaney’s central creative impulse”. Discuss.
As an Irish writer, Heaney feels that it is his duty to write about the Irish troubles, and it is a recurring theme in many of his poems. At times he writes of incidents occurring in his own life that has relevance to the situation, at times of it directly. Using a variety of references, he brings the reader alert to his belief that whatever the reasons, the results are suffered by everyone—fear, deaths, and untold suffering. His poems are an effort to bring this view centre stage, alert people to day-to-day happenings, events that would otherwise go unheard.
Irish Atmosphere
Heaney describes the effects of the troubles in poems like From the Frontier of Writingand The Ministry of Fear. The former describes the Dantesque hell faced by the people each time they are stopped at a roadblock—the fear and paralysis that shoots through them—and thefeeling when finally they are let go, “arraigned yet free”. In The Ministry of Fear he talks of the inherent separation of Catholics and Protestants— “Catholics, in general, don’t speak / As well as students from Protestant schools”. Even when stopped by the police for a routine check, his Catholic name would attract attention. Incidents like this make living in Ireland a daily nightmare.
Mourning the Dead
In poems such as Funeral Rites he talks of the many that have been killed; almost everyone he knows has someone to mourn. He describes the symbolic cortege, “winding past / each blinded home”, struck by tragedy and sorrow. The numbers are chilling, and drives home Heaney’s point—the conflict is a lose-lose situation.
Casualty is a poem that speaks of the futility of the killings— referring to civilians killed by the IRA. The “casualty” in this poem is Heaney’s friend, killed in a curfew, and the poet asks “how culpable was he?” There are other poems he writes, remembering friends who have lost their lives, many of them in ‘Field Work’.
Searching for a Solution
In light of these conflicts, Heaney attempted to uncover a solution, believing that his role as a writer prompted him to attempt a solution. In his bog poems, and certain others, he advocates a return to the roots of the past. In The Tollund Man he searches for a symbol—one that will unite the people and magically overcome the conflict. These poems thus, have as an underlying theme a wish to resolve the problems of conflict-ridden Ulster.
It’s Not All Bad
The entire picture isn’t bleak however, as Heaney points out in The Other Side and AnUlster Twilight. In these poems he writes of unexpected acts of kindness by Protestant neighbours to Catholics in the area—sterling examples of compassion and beauty that stand out amidst the terrible, hate-filled encounters.
These are examples of where those from “the other side”, despite their affiliations, reached out and displayed humanity to a person who, after all despite their religion, was just another human being.
Conclusion
Heaney, as an Irish poet, has used the troubles as a context to many of his poems, either directly or indirectly. However, his greatness as a poet lies in showing tiny portraits of Irish life, which portray these conflicts as real, and gives both sides to the account. He brings out the human side to it, which makes him one of the most important Irish poets in recent times
Irish Atmosphere
Heaney describes the effects of the troubles in poems like From the Frontier of Writingand The Ministry of Fear. The former describes the Dantesque hell faced by the people each time they are stopped at a roadblock—the fear and paralysis that shoots through them—and thefeeling when finally they are let go, “arraigned yet free”. In The Ministry of Fear he talks of the inherent separation of Catholics and Protestants— “Catholics, in general, don’t speak / As well as students from Protestant schools”. Even when stopped by the police for a routine check, his Catholic name would attract attention. Incidents like this make living in Ireland a daily nightmare.
Mourning the Dead
In poems such as Funeral Rites he talks of the many that have been killed; almost everyone he knows has someone to mourn. He describes the symbolic cortege, “winding past / each blinded home”, struck by tragedy and sorrow. The numbers are chilling, and drives home Heaney’s point—the conflict is a lose-lose situation.
Casualty is a poem that speaks of the futility of the killings— referring to civilians killed by the IRA. The “casualty” in this poem is Heaney’s friend, killed in a curfew, and the poet asks “how culpable was he?” There are other poems he writes, remembering friends who have lost their lives, many of them in ‘Field Work’.
Searching for a Solution
In light of these conflicts, Heaney attempted to uncover a solution, believing that his role as a writer prompted him to attempt a solution. In his bog poems, and certain others, he advocates a return to the roots of the past. In The Tollund Man he searches for a symbol—one that will unite the people and magically overcome the conflict. These poems thus, have as an underlying theme a wish to resolve the problems of conflict-ridden Ulster.
It’s Not All Bad
The entire picture isn’t bleak however, as Heaney points out in The Other Side and AnUlster Twilight. In these poems he writes of unexpected acts of kindness by Protestant neighbours to Catholics in the area—sterling examples of compassion and beauty that stand out amidst the terrible, hate-filled encounters.
These are examples of where those from “the other side”, despite their affiliations, reached out and displayed humanity to a person who, after all despite their religion, was just another human being.
Conclusion
Heaney, as an Irish poet, has used the troubles as a context to many of his poems, either directly or indirectly. However, his greatness as a poet lies in showing tiny portraits of Irish life, which portray these conflicts as real, and gives both sides to the account. He brings out the human side to it, which makes him one of the most important Irish poets in recent times
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