RIP Seamus Heaney

[Orlion]

Seamus Heaney, acclaimed by many as the best Irish poet since WB Yeats, has died aged 74.

Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past".

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23898891

It's been a few years since I've read Seamus. Nonetheless, I had a lot of respect for him. His translation of Beowulf was one of the best, and it's a shame that he is gone.

It's been a rough year for losing writers

[ussusimiel]

Yes, a sad day for the world of poetry. Himself and the less well known Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh are the two most important Irish poets for someone like me who comes from the Irish countryside and also writes (Yeats is important in another way altogether). Both opened up a space for writers to use the everyday language and imagery of farming and the land without feeling ashamed or embarrassed (remember we use the language of our former oppressor and inherit a definite class sense from that). Because of Kavanagh and Heaney I have used words like: 'sprong', 'brus', 'rick' and 'annis' in my poems.

May he Rest in Peace.

u.

[peter]

I'm not overly familiar with Heaney's work, but I read somewhere that he was [as a man] very nearly the 'atithesis' of his near comtempory Ted Hughs. For Hughes waywardness and brooding nature, Heaney gave twinkling eyed joviality and stability. Did the two mens work reflect this opposing polarity of their natures [or have I got it all wrong anyway ].