![]() A recognisable Heaney trait is filtering subject matter through a child’s looking-glass lens. ![]() Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 and turned down the position of Poet Laureate when it was offered to him, possibly because he regards himself as Irish, not British: after lunching with the Queen he said, “I have nothing against the Queen personally” but in 1982 he published the lines, “My passport’s green/ No glass of ours was ever raised/ To toast the Queen.” Before his death in 2013 he wrote about Irish community life, people’s connection with the land ( Storm on the Island Bogland ), politics and history (particularly The Troubles), his own rural upbringing and journey to becoming a writer ( Follower Digging Personal Helicon). ![]() It’s quite possible that you could hear his writerly voice as a child, study him as you get older (his poems are often anthologised or selected for GCSE and A Level study) and come to regard him as an old familiar friend through your adult life. Seamus Heaney is one of the most recognisable names in English-language poetry. ![]() “… the most skilful and profound poet writing in English today.” Edward Mendelson (NYT Review of Opened Ground) ![]()
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