Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) is the most celebrated poet of his generation, a Nobel Prize–winning writer whose extraordinary facility for language is matched by a readiness to question the place of art in a world of moral and political crisis. Born in Northern Ireland, Heaney left a body of work that transcends the specifics of its time and place, yet also confronts the descent of the region into sectarian violence in thought-provoking ways.
Though his Irish identity is foundational to this work, Heaney is also a poet of the world, as influenced by Robert Frost as he is by W. B. Yeats. His relationship with the United States—important throughout his writing life—is a testament to this global outlook and expresses diverse creative energies. Lucy Collins, editor of the Irish University Review and an associate professor at University College Dublin, explores Heaney’s evolution as a poet from early encounters with the natural world to later texts of political and philosophical inquiry.
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