A vivid and original account of one of Ireland's greatest poets by an
acclaimed Irish historian and literary biographer
The most important Irish poet of the postwar era, Seamus Heaney rose to
prominence as his native Northern Ireland descended into sectarian
violence. A national figure at a time when nationality was deeply
contested, Heaney also won international acclaim, culminating in the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995. In On Seamus Heaney, leading Irish
historian and literary critic R. F. Foster gives an incisive and
eloquent account of the poet and his work against the background of a
changing Ireland.
Drawing on unpublished drafts and correspondence, Foster provides
illuminating and personal interpretations of Heaney's work. Though a
deeply charismatic figure, Heaney refused to don the mantle of public
spokesperson, and Foster identifies a deliberate evasiveness and
creative ambiguity in his poetry. In this, and in Heaney's evocation of
a disappearing rural Ireland haunted by political violence, Foster finds
parallels with the other towering figure of Irish poetry, W. B. Yeats.
Foster also discusses Heaney's cosmopolitanism, his support for
dissident poets abroad, and his increasing focus in his later work on
death and spiritual transcendence. Above all, Foster examines how Heaney
created an extraordinary connection with an exceptionally wide
readership, giving him an authority and power unique among contemporary
writers.
Combining a vivid account of Heaney's life and a compelling reading of
his entire oeuvre, On Seamus Heaney extends our understanding of the
man as it enriches our appreciation of his poetry.
