欧宝娱乐

Station Island was published in 1984 when Seamus Heaney was in his mid-forties and he felt he was at a crossroads. Station Island is the site of St. Patrick's Purgatory, an ancient pilgrimage site which figures prominently in the poem. The prose-poem is divided into 3 parts. The first part is 41 lyric poems mainly about ordinary life. The second, Station Island has twelve sections of encounters with the dead as the author makes the pilgrimage and comes face to face with his younger self. In the third part, Sweeney Redevivus, the author uses the voice of a seventh century Ulster king in twenty poetic pieces.

Overall, the poem is beautiful and spiritual in tone. Its imagery is expressive of the both the joys and sorrows and confusions found in life. One caution for the reader new to Seamus Heaney. This prose-poem is very literary. Some simple ecclesiastical Latin, Dante, Irish culture and history are necessary to understand what he's talking about. It would help to know a little about Heaney, too. I looked up some as I went along and finally stopped and read up on the poem before continuing. I wish I had done it before I started. Even after I had read up on it, I still found the most pleasure in the first part, the poems about ordinary things.