Seamus Heaney I Collected Poems

by Seamus Heaney

Recorded in 2009, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney reads his first eleven collections of poems in their entirety. In this new edition Faber has added live readings by the poet of eleven poems from his final collection, Human Chain (2010), to complete the collection.

Genres: Poetry

Audio CD

Published September 19, 2019

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a slight cheat to count this as finished because I was listening to it in parallel to reading the individual volumes. I find that - if you can afford it - this is an excellent way of reading poetry. Especially when the author's voice is a lugubriously delightful as Heaney's.

It also gives you a clearer idea of what Heaney wants the poems to sound like. He doesn't do that high falutin' poets voice that some older poets - W B Yeats and Dylan Thomas I'm looking at you - do for whatever reason. He's matter of fact. Never casual. He's obviously very keen on using words effectively.

It helps too with pronunciation of places and names. Mostly they're not too difficult but occasionally you need some help.

These four books written between 1966 and 1975 are superb. I've got individual reviews for each of them in my timeline. But read Heaney. Read poetry.

[hawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

really enjoyed this collection of 4 earlier collections of poetry, read by the author.