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Seamus Heaney

Born

in Castledawson, County Derry, Ireland

April 13, 1939

Died

August 30, 2013

Genre

Poetry

Influences

Geoffrey Chaucer, Lord Byron, T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Gerard Manley ...more

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Works of Irish poet Seamus Justin Heaney reflect landscape, culture, and political crises of his homeland and include the collections Wintering Out (1972) and Field Work (1979) as well as a translation of Beowulf (1999). He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995.

This writer and lecturer won this prize "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past."

Heaney on Wikipedia.
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Combine Editions
Seamus Heaney’s books

Average rating: 3.56 · 361,993 ratings · 13,959 reviews · 401 distinct works • Similar authors

	Beowulf 3.51 avg rating — 358,961 ratings — published 950 — 1680 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Opened Ground 4.26 avg rating — 5,990 ratings — published 1996	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Death of a Naturalist 4.25 avg rating — 4,830 ratings — published 1966 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Selected Poems, 1966-1987 4.18 avg rating — 3,176 ratings — published 1990 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone by Seamus Heaney (Adaptation), Sophocles 3.94 avg rating — 3,054 ratings — published 2004 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	North 4.08 avg rating — 2,877 ratings — published 1975 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	100 Poems 4.24 avg rating — 1,547 ratings — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Field Work: Poems 4.23 avg rating — 1,393 ratings — published 1979 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Human Chain 3.93 avg rating — 1,489 ratings — published 2010 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	District and Circle 4.02 avg rating — 1,354 ratings — published 2006 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Seamus Heaney…

Quotes by Seamus Heaney (?)

“If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.”
― Seamus Heaney, Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney

tags: expression, finding-your-voice, poetry

2616 likes

“Human beings suffer,
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

The innocent in gaols
Beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
Stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
Faints at the funeral home.

History says, don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracle
And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.”
― Seamus Heaney

305 likes

“It is always better
to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.
For every one of us, living in this world
means waiting for our end. Let whoever can
win glory before death. When a warrior is gone,
that will be his best and only bulwark.”
― Seamus Heaney, Beowulf

tags: life, poetry, revenge

199 likes

See all Seamus Heaney's quotes »

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Seamus Heaney’s Followers (1,150)

Seamus Heaney

Combine EditionsSeamus Heaney’s books

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Seamus Heaney’s books