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100 Poems
Selected poems from a Nobel laureate
Seamus Heaney had the idea to form a personal selection of poems from across the entire arc of his writing life, small yet comprehensive enough to serve as an introduction for all comers. He never managed to do this himself, and no other edition exists that has such a broad range, drawing from the first to the last of his prizewinning collections. But now, finally, the project has been returned to, resulting in an intimate gathering of poems chosen and introduced by the Heaney family. In 100 Poems, readers will enjoy the most loved and celebrated poems, and will discover new favorites. It is a singular and welcoming anthology, reaching far and wide, for now and for years to come.
Seamus Heaney had the idea to form a personal selection of poems from across the entire arc of his writing life, small yet comprehensive enough to serve as an introduction for all comers. He never managed to do this himself, and no other edition exists that has such a broad range, drawing from the first to the last of his prizewinning collections. But now, finally, the project has been returned to, resulting in an intimate gathering of poems chosen and introduced by the Heaney family. In 100 Poems, readers will enjoy the most loved and celebrated poems, and will discover new favorites. It is a singular and welcoming anthology, reaching far and wide, for now and for years to come.
192 pages, Hardcover
Published August 20, 2019
375 people are currently reading
2,797 people want to read
About the author
Seamus Heaney
343Ìýbooks1,037ÌýfollowersWorks 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."
.
This writer and lecturer won this prize "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past."
.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 222 reviews
July 10, 2022
I haven't read much poetry at all this year and decided to pick this one up. Never read from this author before and he definitely had a way of words. Not my favorite poems but they were easy to consume and very interesting
September 5, 2024
Reading this incredible book by my favorite Irish poet Seamus Heaney for the third time brought back some very good memories of seeing places associated with Heaney in Ireland. My favorite poem from this book is Postscript. It conveys a sense of awe and wonder inspired by the Irish countryside in County Clare. I cherish this copy I recently purchased from Hodges Figgis bookshop in Dublin.
August 31, 2023
Seamus Heaney is a genius - we 'had' to study some of his poems in school - when you are a teenager you don't really appreciate 'having' to do certain things and reading stuffy poetry was probably one of the things I wasn't too keen on. I have read his poems over the years but it is now ten years since he passed away so there have been programmes on the radio station that I listen to (RTÉ - Ireland's National Television and Radio Broadcaster) and it brought back to me what a wonderful poet he is.
One that takes me home to the West of Ireland ...
... and one of my favourites ...
One that takes me home to the West of Ireland ...
Postscript
And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
So that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter, and inland among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit
By the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,
Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,
Their fully grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
Useless to think you’ll park and capture it
More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open....
... and one of my favourites ...
Mid-Term Break
I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o'clock our neighbours drove me home.
In the porch I met my father crying�
He had always taken funerals in his stride�
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand
And tell me they were 'sorry for my trouble'.
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.
Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
A four-foot box, a foot for every year.
June 13, 2019
This is a wonderful collection of Heaney's work. I've not read too much poetry since university, but in recent months have been getting back into it. My favorite poems were "Scaffolding" and "Casualty", but there are so many gems here.
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Find more reviews and bookish fun at
August 9, 2018
Beautiful poems.
A book to keep nearby and read and think about a poem each day.
A book to keep nearby and read and think about a poem each day.
May 28, 2021
How do you summarize the work of a writer who published dozens of books of poems, translations, essays and more?
This is the family answer to that question. Heaney, an excellent and accessible poet, had already published two collections of selected work. But when he died, it was still too vast an estate for his widow and children.
So the family chose their favorites of Heaney's work, one hundred poems out of thousands. It is compelling from the first couplet. His gift for leaping from the personal concern to the greater question, or from a seemingly mild poem into a knockout punch of a last line -- it's all on fine display here.
For readers unfamiliar with this great and prolific Irish poet, here is an ideal introduction.
This is the family answer to that question. Heaney, an excellent and accessible poet, had already published two collections of selected work. But when he died, it was still too vast an estate for his widow and children.
So the family chose their favorites of Heaney's work, one hundred poems out of thousands. It is compelling from the first couplet. His gift for leaping from the personal concern to the greater question, or from a seemingly mild poem into a knockout punch of a last line -- it's all on fine display here.
For readers unfamiliar with this great and prolific Irish poet, here is an ideal introduction.
November 24, 2024
Lo recomiendo un montón. El solo hecho de tener el texto en inglés en el mismo tamaño, enfrentado al texto español es maravishoso. Lo otro: la selección incluye los poemas favoritos de SH, los que más le gustaba recitar y los que más disfrutaba su familia. Para mà ese conjunto de criterios se acerca al ideal para una primera inmersión. De momento dos poemas me han atrapado: el primero, “Diggingâ€�, porque habla de la vocación del escritor enfrentada al oficio de los mayores, campesinos; el segundo, “Anahorishâ€�, una hermosÃsima evocación del espacio natal que además es una canción de Lisa Hannigan, otra irlandesa admirable.
May 21, 2019
I could not delay reading this collection of poems any longer. After a couple of recent excursions into more modern anthologies, there was an impetus within to read a Ireland’s treasure, the sadly missed, Seamus Heaney.
Prior to his death this prodigious poet was approached about a similar venture. It seemed respectful and appropriate that 5 years after he passed, his family helped bring his works together for this special selection of 100 poems.
In a forward on behalf of the family, his daughter Catherine provides some background into how they chose just fragment of his lifetime’s work.
It is a celebration, and will resonate with those who already adore his poems and win many new admirers.
For my part, I was vaguely aware of some of the more well known verse from the ‘troubles�. I did not have a grasp of his range and extent of poetic voice.
As the family recall; they miss that distinctive voice reading his poems and so I have subsequently listened to a few and this has added to my enjoyment.
Here are classics: like Digging; Scaffolding; Two Lorries and my favourite Whatever You Say, Say Nothing.
I also enjoyed: Miracle; District and Circle; St Kevin and the Blackbird; The Skylight andThe Railway Children.
A traditional poet with and enduring voice.
“Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four-foot box in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear,
A four-foot box, a foot for every year.�
“After they shot dead
The thirteen men in Derry.
PARAS THIRTEEN, the walls said,
BOGSIDE NIL. That Wednesday
Everybody held
Their breath and trembled.�
“‘To be called a British soldier while my country
Has no place among nations....� You were rent
By shrapnel six weeks later. ‘I am sorry
That party politics should divide our tents.’�
“Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives -
Never closer the whole rest of our lives.�
“She touched our cheeks. She let us touch her braille
In books like books wallpaper patterns came in.
Her hands were active and her eyes were full
Of open darkness and a watery shine.�
Read it and make your own mind up.
Prior to his death this prodigious poet was approached about a similar venture. It seemed respectful and appropriate that 5 years after he passed, his family helped bring his works together for this special selection of 100 poems.
In a forward on behalf of the family, his daughter Catherine provides some background into how they chose just fragment of his lifetime’s work.
It is a celebration, and will resonate with those who already adore his poems and win many new admirers.
For my part, I was vaguely aware of some of the more well known verse from the ‘troubles�. I did not have a grasp of his range and extent of poetic voice.
As the family recall; they miss that distinctive voice reading his poems and so I have subsequently listened to a few and this has added to my enjoyment.
Here are classics: like Digging; Scaffolding; Two Lorries and my favourite Whatever You Say, Say Nothing.
I also enjoyed: Miracle; District and Circle; St Kevin and the Blackbird; The Skylight andThe Railway Children.
A traditional poet with and enduring voice.
“Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four-foot box in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear,
A four-foot box, a foot for every year.�
“After they shot dead
The thirteen men in Derry.
PARAS THIRTEEN, the walls said,
BOGSIDE NIL. That Wednesday
Everybody held
Their breath and trembled.�
“‘To be called a British soldier while my country
Has no place among nations....� You were rent
By shrapnel six weeks later. ‘I am sorry
That party politics should divide our tents.’�
“Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives -
Never closer the whole rest of our lives.�
“She touched our cheeks. She let us touch her braille
In books like books wallpaper patterns came in.
Her hands were active and her eyes were full
Of open darkness and a watery shine.�
Read it and make your own mind up.
January 1, 2024
2nd read
poems that I delighted in this time around
“Twice Shy� - stillness, youth
“Personal Helicon� - sweet memories <3
“The Peninsula� - wonderful wonderful poem, reality as it is
“Night Drive� - the marvelous ordinary
“Wedding Day� - bittersweet loss
“Mossbawn: Two Poems in Dedication, I. Sunlight� - nostalgia
“The Harvest Bow� - unspokenness of love, love in action
“Glanmore Revisited: VII The Skylight� - the ordinary as marvelous
“P´Ç²õ³Ù²õ³¦°ù¾±±è³Ùâ€�
“The Clothes Shrine� - ordinary, mundane beauty
such a precious precious man <3
-------------
1st read
wow he's brilliant!
did not enjoy his poems about Ireland as much but I think that is mostly on account of my ignorance of all the Irish lingo! also, even though I didn't understand many of his poems about Ireland, they still made me almost homesick for the country (obviously not my home, I know) and left me wanting to go back and appreciate it more because listen! I'm not your typical Irish hype woman like every other American and their mother (and brother!!). So yeah who knows, Seamus might bring me to the other side ¯\_(�)_/¯
my favorite poems from this collection:
Digging
Scaffolding
The cure at Troy (love x2)
St kevin and the blackbird
Postscript
Chanson d'Aventure
Miracle (love x2)
poems that I delighted in this time around
“Twice Shy� - stillness, youth
“Personal Helicon� - sweet memories <3
“The Peninsula� - wonderful wonderful poem, reality as it is
“Night Drive� - the marvelous ordinary
“Wedding Day� - bittersweet loss
“Mossbawn: Two Poems in Dedication, I. Sunlight� - nostalgia
“The Harvest Bow� - unspokenness of love, love in action
“Glanmore Revisited: VII The Skylight� - the ordinary as marvelous
“P´Ç²õ³Ù²õ³¦°ù¾±±è³Ùâ€�
“The Clothes Shrine� - ordinary, mundane beauty
such a precious precious man <3
-------------
1st read
wow he's brilliant!
did not enjoy his poems about Ireland as much but I think that is mostly on account of my ignorance of all the Irish lingo! also, even though I didn't understand many of his poems about Ireland, they still made me almost homesick for the country (obviously not my home, I know) and left me wanting to go back and appreciate it more because listen! I'm not your typical Irish hype woman like every other American and their mother (and brother!!). So yeah who knows, Seamus might bring me to the other side ¯\_(�)_/¯
my favorite poems from this collection:
Digging
Scaffolding
The cure at Troy (love x2)
St kevin and the blackbird
Postscript
Chanson d'Aventure
Miracle (love x2)
February 15, 2021
Like many poets who came up during the latter half of the twentieth century, Heaney suffers from hyphenated-word-disease, but there’s no denying the power of his poetry. Some of these poems are among the finest I’ve ever read. The greatest Irish poet since Yeats.
December 20, 2023
4.5
some got repetitive and some weren't my favourites but by god the man can write. just spectacularly beautiful use of the english language and the chronology was good too.
some got repetitive and some weren't my favourites but by god the man can write. just spectacularly beautiful use of the english language and the chronology was good too.
July 12, 2020
Not necessarily all my cup of tea, but an enjoyable collection nonetheless. This was my introduction to the work of Seamus Heaney. Themes include nature, childhood, Ireland. My favourite poems were:
Mid-term Break
Twice Shy
Punishment
Oysters
Elegy
The Stone Verdict
From Clearances
From the Cure at Troy
A Call
Midnight Anvil
Mid-term Break
Twice Shy
Punishment
Oysters
Elegy
The Stone Verdict
From Clearances
From the Cure at Troy
A Call
Midnight Anvil
October 19, 2020
If you've read a lot of Heaney's poetry, you might not think this volume is worth reading. Before he died, Heaney was planning this book, and after his death, his wife and children made the final choices. One hundred poems are a lot, and there were many that I had overlooked in my readings of Heaney. It is a brilliant collection, and one I highly recommend.
January 15, 2023
4.5
Other than a few poems of Heaney’s scattered about in anthologies I read in university, I really wasn’t familiar with him at all until I was given this book by a friend.
There is much to love and admire in this anthology, from the prologue by his family explaining that they selected these poems after Heaney’s death to fulfill one of his wishes, to the emotive descriptions of each poem’s setting, which was astonishing- how he places the reader immediately in a place of his choosing in so few words is some kind of magic- and the scope. Like any collection, some poems were deeply felt (“cure at Troy�, “postscript�, “elegy�, “night drive� and every poem he wrote for his wife or loved one) and some I couldn’t quite grasp, no doubt due, in part, to my not having visited Ireland yet and being ignorant of its words, its places, its spirit.
An impressive collection and superb introduction to his work.
Other than a few poems of Heaney’s scattered about in anthologies I read in university, I really wasn’t familiar with him at all until I was given this book by a friend.
There is much to love and admire in this anthology, from the prologue by his family explaining that they selected these poems after Heaney’s death to fulfill one of his wishes, to the emotive descriptions of each poem’s setting, which was astonishing- how he places the reader immediately in a place of his choosing in so few words is some kind of magic- and the scope. Like any collection, some poems were deeply felt (“cure at Troy�, “postscript�, “elegy�, “night drive� and every poem he wrote for his wife or loved one) and some I couldn’t quite grasp, no doubt due, in part, to my not having visited Ireland yet and being ignorant of its words, its places, its spirit.
An impressive collection and superb introduction to his work.
January 6, 2024
Love Seamus Heaney. I will enjoy many rereadings of these.
Complex and abstract. Heaney describes Irelands countryside and history. He describes the birth of his child and love.
Complex and abstract. Heaney describes Irelands countryside and history. He describes the birth of his child and love.
August 2, 2018
I think we studied one or two of Heaney's poems at school, but I definitely wasn't ready for them. How likely is it that a town-raised 12-year-old girl will really appreciate a poem by a rural poet about his father and grandfather working the land? I now find myself wishing that I'd been introduced to them when I was in my late teens or early twenties, because I think I'd have understood and appreciated them more then - and who knows, perhaps I'd even have become a poetry fan.
My husband loves to read (and occasionally write) poetry, but it's not a genre that I've ever quite understood. I always feel as if I'm missing something, as if maybe I'm just not clever enough for it. Once in a while, though, I'll come across a poem that I do like. I'm still never quite sure I'm "getting" it, just that I know what I like (I'm much the same with paintings and photography - other areas in which my husband analyses and talks and I listen and nod, but feel not much the wiser). This book, though...
Heaney was nothing short of brilliant - in his work, but also in his character. We attended a celebration of his life which was hosted by a local theatre the day after he died; it was sold-out, despite the short notice, and the love for Heaney and grief at his death was evident in the room. But again, I still felt that I was somewhere on the edges, not quite appreciating it the way others did. And now, having read this, I'm beginning to feel like maybe I've started to understand.
Heaney had hoped to put together a single-volume, personal collection of his poetry; these are, inevitably, probably not exactly the poems he'd have chosen, but they were chosen by the people who were closest to him and loved him most, and that comes through clearly.
I know reading poetry is not like reading a thriller (see? I'm not a complete philistine) and so I thought, "I'll just read one or two poems every couple of days". And then I started reading this, and, well, within a few hours, I'd read the whole thing - bits of it more than once.
My favourites:
Digging
Follower
Mid-term Break
Scaffolding
The Tollund Man
Punishment
Whatever You Say Say Nothing
The Ministry of Fear
Elegy
The Skunk
1.I.87
The Rain Stick
The Conway Stewart
Yes, that's me, the non-lover of poetry, the person who doesn't get it, who loved and was moved by every poem on that list.
My husband loves to read (and occasionally write) poetry, but it's not a genre that I've ever quite understood. I always feel as if I'm missing something, as if maybe I'm just not clever enough for it. Once in a while, though, I'll come across a poem that I do like. I'm still never quite sure I'm "getting" it, just that I know what I like (I'm much the same with paintings and photography - other areas in which my husband analyses and talks and I listen and nod, but feel not much the wiser). This book, though...
Heaney was nothing short of brilliant - in his work, but also in his character. We attended a celebration of his life which was hosted by a local theatre the day after he died; it was sold-out, despite the short notice, and the love for Heaney and grief at his death was evident in the room. But again, I still felt that I was somewhere on the edges, not quite appreciating it the way others did. And now, having read this, I'm beginning to feel like maybe I've started to understand.
Heaney had hoped to put together a single-volume, personal collection of his poetry; these are, inevitably, probably not exactly the poems he'd have chosen, but they were chosen by the people who were closest to him and loved him most, and that comes through clearly.
I know reading poetry is not like reading a thriller (see? I'm not a complete philistine) and so I thought, "I'll just read one or two poems every couple of days". And then I started reading this, and, well, within a few hours, I'd read the whole thing - bits of it more than once.
My favourites:
Digging
Follower
Mid-term Break
Scaffolding
The Tollund Man
Punishment
Whatever You Say Say Nothing
The Ministry of Fear
Elegy
The Skunk
1.I.87
The Rain Stick
The Conway Stewart
Yes, that's me, the non-lover of poetry, the person who doesn't get it, who loved and was moved by every poem on that list.
Read
July 26, 2023HEANEY scholar status in the works dare i say it?! big ty to KOEPKE for choosing Heaney as her JPo poet!!!
Some thoughts I jotted down while sitting at my desk last Sunday afternoon: Originally thought I'd sit and read this on my patio in the sultry New Orleans heat as I always picture dirt when i think of Heaney's poetry (can't help it because of "Digging" apologies!) Instead, it is raining, and I'm sitting at my desk watching the wind knock the oak trees about-- the trees are clapping, in a sense. feels right - a rainy Sunday afternoon in New Orleans reading poetry, sp. my friend's most favorite JPo poet. thinking, thinking quite a bit these past few days, but also just want to read a poem and then stare out at the rain and listen to the wind and thunder in the distance. also sounds of the sheets of rain and the occasional car going down the block mixed with the sounds of my brother and his friends playing out in the rain.
-- okay so let's say this whole backdrop that i decided to catalogue absolutely connects with "Digging." this shift from being in the world, working outside in the dirt, the soil to inside to the desk, the pen, the paper. sitting inside - view from his window as being similar to my rainy day set-up.
**"the curt cuts of an edge / Through living roots awaken in my head" -- only word that seems apt for this one: dichotomy. and it's a gorgeous one at that.
-- okay now let's say "the Grauballe Man" fits rather perfectly with a visit to my old neighborhood a few days later. where i walk by my old house and peer down the driveway to a fence that conceals where the back garden used to be (perhaps still is in some fashion). where I'd sit on the stones that framed my little garden -- the magnolia tree tossed about by the wind overhead -- the clapping of the heavy limbs and shuffling of the rubbery leaves and the sunlight peering through. and I saw this as also connecting with "The Singer's House" -- where we get hints of the things missed -- never the real, preserved thing. only these flashing images beautifully (sometimes, that is) ingrained in memory, in the way we see the world.
**"So much comes and is gone / that should be crystal and kept, // and amicable weathers / that bring up the grain of things, / there tang of season and store, / are all packing we'll get"
and this is what poetry is supposed to do in one sense at least: imbue the way we see the world with a sense of magicalness (and we are at the magical point of summer -- late July, early August -- my most favorite time that exists outside of fall). Heaney's recounting of his past -- using poetry as a means of reconnecting with his childhood, with past memories -- is quite marvelous. it contributed to this sense of reflection and these past few weeks of seeing the world with a renewed sense of wonder, of summers' past with a keen sense of the magicalness it all held and continues to hold.
Some thoughts I jotted down while sitting at my desk last Sunday afternoon: Originally thought I'd sit and read this on my patio in the sultry New Orleans heat as I always picture dirt when i think of Heaney's poetry (can't help it because of "Digging" apologies!) Instead, it is raining, and I'm sitting at my desk watching the wind knock the oak trees about-- the trees are clapping, in a sense. feels right - a rainy Sunday afternoon in New Orleans reading poetry, sp. my friend's most favorite JPo poet. thinking, thinking quite a bit these past few days, but also just want to read a poem and then stare out at the rain and listen to the wind and thunder in the distance. also sounds of the sheets of rain and the occasional car going down the block mixed with the sounds of my brother and his friends playing out in the rain.
-- okay so let's say this whole backdrop that i decided to catalogue absolutely connects with "Digging." this shift from being in the world, working outside in the dirt, the soil to inside to the desk, the pen, the paper. sitting inside - view from his window as being similar to my rainy day set-up.
**"the curt cuts of an edge / Through living roots awaken in my head" -- only word that seems apt for this one: dichotomy. and it's a gorgeous one at that.
-- okay now let's say "the Grauballe Man" fits rather perfectly with a visit to my old neighborhood a few days later. where i walk by my old house and peer down the driveway to a fence that conceals where the back garden used to be (perhaps still is in some fashion). where I'd sit on the stones that framed my little garden -- the magnolia tree tossed about by the wind overhead -- the clapping of the heavy limbs and shuffling of the rubbery leaves and the sunlight peering through. and I saw this as also connecting with "The Singer's House" -- where we get hints of the things missed -- never the real, preserved thing. only these flashing images beautifully (sometimes, that is) ingrained in memory, in the way we see the world.
**"So much comes and is gone / that should be crystal and kept, // and amicable weathers / that bring up the grain of things, / there tang of season and store, / are all packing we'll get"
and this is what poetry is supposed to do in one sense at least: imbue the way we see the world with a sense of magicalness (and we are at the magical point of summer -- late July, early August -- my most favorite time that exists outside of fall). Heaney's recounting of his past -- using poetry as a means of reconnecting with his childhood, with past memories -- is quite marvelous. it contributed to this sense of reflection and these past few weeks of seeing the world with a renewed sense of wonder, of summers' past with a keen sense of the magicalness it all held and continues to hold.
April 1, 2023
seamus heaney really said i’m going to manifest some powerfully resonant and affecting poetic parallels between the bog bodies of ritual sacrifices and victims of sectarian violence in 1970s northern ireland. and honestly he ate !
April 13, 2023
I’ve been reading my way through this collection since last fall, and while “Digging� and “Blackberry Picking� are two of my favorite things that anyone has ever written, and I love Heaney’s ear for words and language, I didn’t love this collection. I honestly thought it was weird. Apparently, Heaney’s family put it together from family favorites and poems that are meaningful to them. It’s fine, because it contains my two very favorites, but I didn’t love it and felt mostly confused by the choices and juxtapositions.
October 30, 2022
king 😌
April 27, 2024
There are lots of videos available online of the man himself reciting some of these poems. I found watching those very helpful in understanding some of these that weren’t sinking in for me.
December 23, 2023
Prior to reading this anthology, I had only really read Heaney's cutting and beautiful translation of Beowulf. I hadn't forgotten about him after high school, I just hadn't time.
Heaney's poetry is palpable. My goodness! You want to read these out loud and feel the weight of the meter and savor every syllable. You want to taste and see.
His particular musicality and voice is so distinctly born of Ireland. Even when he's not writing directly about the landscape or using it as a device, it's there: the peat, the sod, the damp ache, the sea. Every iamb is itself a sod-cutter: slicing into the layers, bringing up the muck underneath from the psyche. He finds new ways to sing: the poems are never overwrought, they never get old, they are never camp or cheap aesthetic tricks that parody Ireland.
Environmental and place- based writers: take note.
I'm so grateful to Heaney for sharing his craft with the world. His work is a thing of real beauty.
Heaney's poetry is palpable. My goodness! You want to read these out loud and feel the weight of the meter and savor every syllable. You want to taste and see.
His particular musicality and voice is so distinctly born of Ireland. Even when he's not writing directly about the landscape or using it as a device, it's there: the peat, the sod, the damp ache, the sea. Every iamb is itself a sod-cutter: slicing into the layers, bringing up the muck underneath from the psyche. He finds new ways to sing: the poems are never overwrought, they never get old, they are never camp or cheap aesthetic tricks that parody Ireland.
Environmental and place- based writers: take note.
I'm so grateful to Heaney for sharing his craft with the world. His work is a thing of real beauty.
May 2, 2020
I haven’t read a book of poetry in a VERY long time but I actually liked this. I read it very slowly - mostly by leaving it lying around the house and only picking it up occasionally. Author Ann patchett recommended this book as one of her “covid 19 reads� in her blog. She said no one ever has time for poetry and now we have the time! I agree. It was good to try something new. I prefer Heaney’s shorter poems and slightly funny ones - “The skunk� was probably my favorite - and I’ll admit I didn’t understand a lot of them, but I did get a flavor of Northern Ireland from most of his work and it was nice to travel through the pages since we can’t travel in reality.
January 5, 2025
So, there were some parts that I enjoyed but overall I didn’t really connect with anything in the collection. The Poem Mid-Term Break was the only one that had an emotional impact on me but I did flag quite a few poems to revisit in the future and it’s possible that I’d enjoy those more on a second read and further reflection. Regardless nothing really made me want to analyize or reflect more than surface level on first read. It was fine.
Want to read
December 13, 2022Husband is already trying to ruin this by saying the cover picture looks like Elon Musk 😒 I think he looks like a hobbit.
June 22, 2024
Seamus Heaney is a once in a lifetime talent. Highly recommend listening to his poems being read by himself or another person.
August 15, 2023
This is finally the start of my summer reading era. Seamus is an irish poet he won the nobel prize so i wanted to check his work out. U kind of get a sense of the vibes of irish life from his poems which range to be about all sorta of topics. U can tell the past history very much affects them. I liked some of his descriptions of the mundane. He’s def got a way w words.
July 31, 2019
I received this uncorrected proof in a Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ giveaway. Thank you so much!
Stirring, moving. Lovingly curated. I'll be keeping this to read over and over.
Stirring, moving. Lovingly curated. I'll be keeping this to read over and over.
February 5, 2022
Quite an excellent introductory collection to Seamus Heaney’s poems. Drawing from all his major collections, it provides a beautiful look into both the big and little things in life, from the Troubles in Ireland to the love a son has for his father.
Highly recommend for anyone.
5/5
Highly recommend for anyone.
5/5
February 2, 2024
Fave poems:
The cure at Troy
A dog was crying tonight in Wicklow also
At the wellhead
Anahorish 1944
The door was open and the house was dark
Funeral rites
The cure at Troy
A dog was crying tonight in Wicklow also
At the wellhead
Anahorish 1944
The door was open and the house was dark
Funeral rites
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