Chapter - 17

Question- Give a detailed account of life and career' works, influences and achievements of Seamus Heaney.

Answer -

Seamus Heaney

Born to an Irish parentage, Seamus Heaney had a blend of cattle- herding gaelic past and Irish industrial revolutionist genes in his blood, which gave him a broader perspective to express himself at worldly matters.

Life: Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet, playwright, and translator and a member of Royal Irish Academy born on 13 April, 1939 in the townsland of Tamniaran, Nothern Ireland. His father was Patrick Heaney, a farmer having keen knowledge of cattle herding. His mother was Margaret Kathleen McCann, her family had been a part of Irish industrial revolution.

Heaney, at 12 attended Anahorish Primary School which bestowed him a scholarship to attend a catholic boarding school, St. Columb's College in Derry. He attended St. Joseph's College in Belfast, Heaney graduated in 1961 with first class honours.

In August, 1965, Heaney married Marie Devlin, a school teacher and a writer. Over Nine Waves (1994) a collection of traditional Irish myths and legends are credited to her name.

Career: Later Heaney became a professor at St. Joseph's in Belfast in 1963. Heaney's first book 'Eleven Poems' published in November, 1965 for Queen's University Festival. Heaney was also a professor at Harvard from 1981-1997 and Poet in. Residence from 1988 to 2006. He was also the Professor of Poetry at Oxford for a period of 1989-1994. His poetry career started in 1962 under the mentorship of Michael Mclaverty who was a writer and headmaster of St. Thomas Secondary Intermediate School, Belfast. His poems - Fosterage' and 'Singing' from North were written to honour his mentor Michael Mclaverty. In 1963, he came to the attention of Philip Hobsbaum, an English lecturer at Queen's University who founded Belfast Group of Local Young Poets. Heaney was appointed as a lecturer in Modern English Literature at Queen's University, Belfast. He was also a guest lecturer at University of California, Berkeley. Heaney started his full-time writing career in 1972. He became Head of English at Carysfort College, Dublin in 1976. Heaney was elected as Saoi and received highest award in 1997 at Aosdana, the national Irish Art Council. In 1984, Heaney's mother died and later on his father died in 1986.

Works: Heaney came a long way after his publication in 1962. Faber and Faber published his first major volume - 'Death of a Naturalist' in 1966. In 1968, Heaney took part in a reading tour called 'Room to Rhyme'. Door into the Dark', his second major volume of work was published in the year 1969. In 1972, Heaney published 'Wintering Out'. In 1975, he published his fourth volume - 'North'. His next volume - Field Work was published in 1979 while 'Selected Poems 1965-1975 and 'Preoccupations Selected Prose 1968-1978'

was published in 1980. Heaney delivered 46-stanza poem entitled 'Verses for a Fordham Commencement at Fordham Commencement ceremony on 23 May, 1982. In 1988, The Government of the Tongue', a collection of critical essays was published. Heaney in 1985, wrote the poem - "From the Republic of conscience" at the request of Amnesty International, Ireland. In 1988, Heaney also gave valuable contribution to Manuscript Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) by donating his lecture notes. He also wrote certain plays.

Like in 1990, "The Cure at Troy', based on Sophocles's Philoctetes was published. In 1991, he published another volume of poem 'Seeing Thing'. Heaney in 1993 guest-edited "The Mays Anthology, which was a collection of new writings written by students of university of Oxford and University of Cambridge. Heaney wrote the poem 'Beacans at Bealtaine' in order to marked the 2004 EU Enlargement. In 2008, Faber and Faber published Dennis O'Driscoll's book Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney, which was somewhat an autobiography of Heaney. In 2010, Faber published, Heaney's twelfth collection 'Human Chain'. In the year of 2011, he also contributed in the translation of old Irish marginalia.

Heaney was also compiling, a collection of his work in anticipation of selected poems 1988-2013' at the time of his death. This collection includes writings like 'Seeing Things', "The Spirit Level', and translated works included Beowulf, Electric light, District and Circle and Human Chain.
In February 2014, Emory University celebrated life and work of Seamus Heaney by conducting first major exhibition of his works.

Seamus Heaney's family posthumously, announced publication of his translation of Book VI of "The Aeneid' in 2016. Further, the poems - 'Mid-Term Break' and 'The Blackbird of Glanmore' depicted his brother's death.

Achievements: 'Death of a Naturalist' garnered Heaney several awards including Gregory Award for Young Writers and Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1968. He received E.M. Forster Award in 1975. He received PEN Translation Award in 1985 and the Golden Wreath of Poetry in 2001. He won two Whitbread Prizes in 1996 and 1999. Heaney received Griffin Poetry Prize in 2011 and received a Lifetime Recognition Award from Griffin Trust in 2012. Heaney received two honorary doctorates from Queen's University and Fordham University in 1982. Heaney received a Litt. D from Bates College in 1986. In 1993, Heaney was awarded with Dickinson College Arts Award.

In 1995, Heaney was awarded with Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1998, Heaney was elected Honorary fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. He received honorary doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2002, Rhodes University awarded him honorary doctorate. In 2003, 'Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry' was opened at Queens. University Belfast containing records of work of Seamus Heaney. Heaney's District and Circle won T.S. Eliot Prize in 2006. In 2008, Seamus Heaney became artist of honour in Ostermarie, Denmark and a street was named after him as Seamus Heaney street.

In 2009, University College Dublin (UCD) Law Society bestowed him with Honorary-Life Membership award for his remarkable contribution as a literary figure. Heaney was awarded with David Cohen Prize in 2009 for literature. In 2010, Human Chain was awarded Forward Poetry Prize for best collection of poetry. In 2012, Heaney accepted Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry's Lifetime Recognition Award.

Influences - Heaney charishmatic work influenced a wide range of poets including Natasha Tretheway, Kevin Young etc. Seamus Heaney's life had several influences that were reflected through his work. Seamus's upbringing, his family, protestant environment, his love with place he born etc. are depicted in his work. Childhood memories, family, nature, time, death are main themes which caused influence on Heaney's work and life as well. Memories of childhood and death are two themes around which several works of Heaney's are based. As Heaney grew up in Northern Ireland on a farm, most of his work reflects farming, family, nature, homeland, Ireland etc.

The poem 'Digging' clearly reflects his upbringing surroundings, his father and his grandfather, nature etc. Poem 'Digging reminds Heaney of his father digging potatoes and his grandfather cutting tarf. Another poem 'A Constable Calls talks about the visit of a constable coming to his house so as to record information about his farm and how he feels about the constable visiting his home? Heaney loved his family very much and such love and feeling was clearly depicted in 'Mid-Term Break' which illustrates his feeling on the death of his younger brother. The poem - The Tollund Man' discusses a dead man who was found in Irish bogs, so well preserved which depicted that he died recently "The Tollund Man' and 'Mid-Term Break' poems speaks of literal death. He talks about figurative death in Death of a Naturalist. This poem illustrates memories of childhood, speaks of a child who is facinated by nature but also sees a disturbing side a nature thereby resulting in death of innocence and joy. Heaney's family also plays a crucial role in his work. His works like The Harvest Bow', 'Digging, Mossbawn Sunlight' clearly reflects on his family, relationship between father, son and his grandfather Heaney's works also examines the relationship between nature and time which was depicted in the poems 'Digging', "The Harvest Bow' and 'Bogland'.

Death: Seamus Heaney died on 30 August, 2013 at the age of 74 in Blackrock Clinic, Dublin and was burried in the same graveyard as his parents, younger brother and other family members were.

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