Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is one of the foremost poets of his generation. His work is greatly admired by scholars and general readers alike, as confirmed by his appointment to professorships at both Harvard and Oxford and, in 1995, the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature. The appeal of Heaney's poetry lies in its gracefulness, its meticulous attention to the sound and structure of language, and the range of topics engaged by the poet: from the precise particularity of the local and familial to greater political, social, and cultural themes. In this lucid and wide-ranging study Andrew Murphy charts the trajectory of Heaney's career as a poet, placing his work within the contexts of both the Irish poetic tradition and his crucial social and political milieu as a writer from the north of Ireland seeking a fruitful engagement with the conflicts affecting his homeland. Heaney emerges as a complex and multi-faceted figure passionately engaged by poetry and politics alike.