"His is close-up poetry - close up to thought, to the world, to the emotions. Few writers at work today, in verse or fiction, can give the sense of rich, fecund, lived life that Heaney does." - John Banville "More than any other poet since Wordsworth he can make us understand that the outside world is not outside, but what we are made of." - John Carey "Heaney's voice, by turns mythological and journalistic, rural and sophisticated, reminiscent and impatient, stern and yielding, curt and expansive, is one of a suppleness almost equal to consciousness itself." - Helen Vendler
A lovely collection. I don't know Heaney's work well enough (yet) but every time I dip into this I am rewarded. It teeters on the brink of being that kind of poetry that was forced upon us at school and if i'm not in the mood I will recoil and put it down. However when the wind is right this collection is as comforting as warmed slippers, a big comfy arm chair and a piping hot drink. It's as comforting as Elvis Presley's Christmas albums however Heaney can be enjoyed the whole year through. Sloe Gin and Song are poems that read over and over and over.