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Of Heaney's books of poems it is difficult to sift & say 'This is his best work.' I don't pretend to have the skills of a poet that should be the fundamental requirement for making such a judgement. It's much easier & more honest to stick with "This is my favourite of his work" & that's what struck me here - at least, that is, until I go back to one of his other volumes in the near future & think "No, this is my favourite!"

I first came across his poems when I was 15 in the local public library. I'd never heard of him, but the title, "Death of a Naturalist" grabbed me for no better reason than that natural history - birds & mammals in particular - were of huge interest to me. From that point of view, the poems were of limited interest, but none-the-less they took a hold of me & have kept it ever since. His are the poems that over the last 40 odd years I've probably gone back to most often & with greatest delight.

Why?

There is a saying among Quakers that "All life is sacramental." It strikes me that Heaney's poems embody this understanding of the world, not in specifically religious terms, but certainly in the sense of a depth, beauty & hope that infuses & underlies the surface history & even the smallest details of life. In the widest sense - although much of his imagery & underlying modelling is built on his Roman catholic background - he accesses & gives access to a powerfully 'spiritual' dimension of life.

Recently I've been reading for the first time some of Paul Muldoon's volumes of poems. Like Heaney he is a poet of huge skill. But I find a satisfaction that comes from reading Heaney's work is absent when reading Muldoon. While Muldoon skates across the two-dimensional surface of an ice rink with the consummate skills of the greatest of ice dancers, Heaney also skates with wonderful skills & grace across the ice, only in his case there are the depths of a lake below the ice over which he skates, and he opens a perception of those depths to the reader.

I found the whole of "Station Island" a delight to read. Within that, Part 2 spoke for me with most deeply & with the greatest resonance.