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Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

30 Aug 13 - 06:41 AM (#3554347)
Subject: Obit: Seamus Heaney
From: GUEST,Peter Laban

RTE news just announced the death of poet Seamus Heaney.

Irish Times article

30 Aug 13 - 07:41 AM (#3554359)
Subject: RE: Obit: Seamus Heaney
From: Big Al Whittle

So sad. I only knew his poetry after I had to teach it. He was an undoubted genius. Very English in the way Yeats was - a lot of cleverness and cerebration - and complex metaphors. I loved his stuff. He was a truth teller. A teller of complex truths. I am surprised politicians liked him.

30 Aug 13 - 07:47 AM (#3554360)
Subject: RE: Obit: Seamus Heaney
From: GUEST,bigJ

Sorry to learn of his death.
He was due to appear at the Derry Fleadh a fortnight ago with Liam O'Flynn, did he make it?

30 Aug 13 - 09:03 AM (#3554389)
Subject: RE: Obit: Seamus Heaney
From: McGrath of Harlow

I'd hoped he'd be here for a good few years, and like Yeats produce another generation of work to make all the younger poets feel a bit out of touch. A few months younger than me. Much too soon to lose him.

30 Aug 13 - 09:59 AM (#3554407)
Subject: RE: Obit: Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: Rapparee

Ah, no!!

30 Aug 13 - 12:33 PM (#3554450)
Subject: Obit: Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: Stilly River Sage

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/seamus-heaney-obituary-nobel-prizewinning-irish-poet-8791807.html

I don't know if this is of interest to many Mudcatters, but poetry and music go hand in hand, so he may have admirers here.

His fourth collection, North (1975), was a stepping stone on the way to his ultimate status as the "greatest living poet" – the most widely read poet in English, possessor of incomparable gifts and impeccable instincts, and all the other superlatives heaped on him.

North was held by some to denote an artistic breakthrough, embodying as it did a new strength and sophistication following on from the pared-down, rural, evocations and intensities of the earlier collections. In Heaney's native Northern Ireland, though, its reception was less than adulatory. There were complicated reasons for this: for example, the "famous Seamus" brouhaha, which was starting up around this time, made a contrary assessment inevitable in the poet's home territory. More seriously, with the Troubles entering a horrific phase, it was felt that certain poems in the collection could be read as an endorsement of Republicanism, with Heaney displaying, at best, as one critic wrote, "a culpable ambiguity in [his] responses to atrocity". Such reservations were, I think, based on a misreading; Heaney was never an apologist for violence, despite the seeming drift of the much-quoted lines about "conniving" in civilised outrage, while understanding "the exact / and tribal, intimate revenge". His brief was large enough to accord a right of expression to every variety of belief. And if "the dark matter of the news headlines" got into Heaney's poetry, as it did at intervals from this time on - though always contained within an oblique and subtle, multi-layered and illuminating, modus operandi – the light he was aiming for, he said, "was the kind that derives from clarity of expression, from plain speaking."


SRS

30 Aug 13 - 03:27 PM (#3554511)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: GUEST,Peter Laban

poetry and music go hand in hand

I suppose in Heaney's case there would be many examples where his poetry and traditional music touched.
His cooperations with Liam O Flynn under the Piper and the Poet banner would be just one example. Poems like The Given Note centering around the story of the great Blasket tune Port na bPucai is just one other example.

'he may have admirers here.'

Is probably a monumental understatement when speaking of a man who was not only a Nobel laureate but by many thought of as the greatest living poet. FWIW, even my son, earlier today, could readily come out with parts of 'The Mid-Term Break', 'Clearances', 'Digging' and others and quote lines from them.

30 Aug 13 - 04:48 PM (#3554532)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: GUEST,Peter Laban

An Bonnan Bui - The Yellow Bittern

30 Aug 13 - 05:50 PM (#3554551)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: gnu

Why is this thread now below the line?

30 Aug 13 - 09:41 PM (#3554609)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: Joe Offer

I wondered that, too. Poetry has generally been above the line.

Is Seamus related to Joe Heaney?

-Joe-

31 Aug 13 - 04:59 AM (#3554665)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: GUEST,Peter Laban

Some mod kicked it down the line within the hour. Ignorance.

No relationship between the Derry and Carna Heaneys.

31 Aug 13 - 06:51 AM (#3554691)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: MartinRyan

There was a clip of an interview with him on TV yesterday, in his study. In the background was a large, stuffed bird - An Bonnán Buí, The Yellow Bittern of poem and song!

Regards

31 Aug 13 - 06:54 AM (#3554693)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: MartinRyan

Ooops - just realised Peter has provided a link to Heaney reading the original poem...

Regards

31 Aug 13 - 06:58 AM (#3554694)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: MartinRyan

... together with his own version.

Regards

p.s. maybe I should go back to bed and start the day again, later.

31 Aug 13 - 09:55 AM (#3554721)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: GUEST,Peter Laban

Stay awake Martin, the sun is shining, don't waste a good day.

I posted an Bonnan Bui to provide a direct link between the song tradition and Heaney poetry and translations. Any amount of poems or quotes could go here and are indeed printed everywhere in tribute at the moment.

The Irish Times' print edition has it's firs five pages fully dedicated to Heaney today, all other news pushed back.

Fintan O Toole's piece Comfort is best found in Seamus Heaney's poems fills the front page.

Full coverage here.

31 Aug 13 - 11:39 AM (#3554746)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: GUEST,Peter Laban

Thanks to the Mod who restored this to it's place above the line.

RTE has the film Seamus Heaney : Out of the Marvelous on it's player but I am uncertain about its availability outside Ireland.

31 Aug 13 - 12:08 PM (#3554755)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: Matthew Edwards

Heaney certainly knew the songs and ballads of his native Ulster well, and he was a great friend of the song collector, singer and broadcaster Davey Hammond for whom he wrote a very moving tribute in "The Human Chain".

Heaney quoted extensively from Magherafelt May Fair in his commencement address at the University of North Carolina in May 1996.

Matthew

31 Aug 13 - 12:43 PM (#3554770)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: GUEST,Peter Laban

Yes, that reminds me of his poem that gave it's name and was re-produced on the cover of Hammond's lp 'The Singer's House'

When they said Carrckfergus I could hear
the frosty echo of saltminers' picks
I imagined it, chambered and glinting,
a township built of light

it ends:

When I came here first you were always singing,
a hint of the clip of the pick
in your winnowing climb and attack.
Raise it again, man. We still believe what we hear.

31 Aug 13 - 05:44 PM (#3554845)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)
From: ChanteyLass

Just been listening to a tribute to him on Celtic Sojourn, WGBH radio's Saturday afternoon radio program. Sorry that he has died.

09 Dec 24 - 12:55 PM (#4213244)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
From: DaveRo

In the (US) Atlantic magazine, Caitlin Flanagan writes about Seamus Heaney, a family friend who often stayed with them in the US.

Walk on Air Against Your Better Judgment

I'm not sure if this is paywalled and if so whether you get free articles. If anybody reading this is a subscriber (I'm not) and can post gift links, please do so.

09 Dec 24 - 12:59 PM (#4213246)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
From: Stilly River Sage

Here you go, Dave. My gift to you!

10 Dec 24 - 08:00 AM (#4213308)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
From: meself

Great article; thanks.

10 Dec 24 - 10:25 AM (#4213320)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
From: GUEST,Roderick A Warner

I’ve always thought Heaney a good poet but subjected to overblown praise. Nobel Prize? Well, each to their own… one criticism aimed at him goes to the other extreme: ‘… bogs, bejaysus and begorrah.’ Which is malicious but also very funny. Comparison to W.B. Yeats strike me as off the mark as well: Yeats was the much greater poet, imo, embedded in history in a way that Heaney was not. Against the background of ‘The Troubles,’ he adroitly sidestepped his way. From Belfast to Sandymount, and beyond…There is no equivalent of ‘Easter 1916’ or ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death.’ Yeats, of course, was lucky to have the young Ezra Pound as secretary for a while who helped him clean up his Celtic Twilight-isms and leave the 19th Century behind. Heaney I find parochial, but more interesting than minor lyricists such as Thomas or Larkin. I would offer the late Geoffrey Hill, whom ironically Heaney championed for the post that he had been elected to earlier, that of Oxford Professor of Poetry (1989-1994). Hill (2010-2015). But Hill is a difficult poet… With a feeling and knowledge of music which might be apposite in this gathering. His surviving recorded lectures at Oxford, gloriously deep, amusing, rambunctious are enlivened by his musical sense: he’s a fair singer and occasionally breaks in to song to illustrate a point, which offers another dimension to his verse, perhaps - his deft technical handling of the sound of poetry against his background of several languages, massive erudition and perhaps his roots in the prewar working class… But as ever: à chacun son goût…

10 Dec 24 - 12:42 PM (#4213325)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
From: Big Al Whittle

Less than Yeats.... not for me.
anyway its not a competition.

He wasn't nationalistic, He was profound and saw the violence as a repulsive but organic component in his nation's identity. There was no mysticism and very few arty farty references to the classics.

The violence was terrible enough, but when it re-emerged, there wasn't much beauty involved. He was too earthy, too genuinely fond of his fellow men to be lulled into seeing 'a terrible beauty'.

15 Dec 24 - 11:43 AM (#4213544)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
From: GUEST,Roderick A Warner

Didn’t suggest it was a competition. Offered my opinion. I regard him as a minor lyric poet as I said. What Ron Silliman termed The School Of Quietude, not groundbreaking or radical in form or content. Safe pair of hands… As if Modernism hadn’t happened. Yeats stepped out of bogs and celtic twilights to produce some radical work aided by the problematic genius of Pound and was someone who was hardly a nationalist in the usual accepted sense, with one foot in English culture and the other in Irish culture. 'Easter 1916' is a great poem because it deals with these issues in subtle ways. Geoffrey Hill was a radical poet formally and with regard to content. In his last published work there are hints of rap weirdly enough and praise for Corbyn, of all people. Hill regarded modern Britain as an ‘anarchiical plutocracy,’ a term he nicked from William Morris, I believe. Yeats had a wide range as did Hill, which included ‘arty farty references to the classics’ as it would be difficult to be a poet embedded in English without them. They connect back across history and give resonance. ‘No mysticism.” A bit of it might have lifted Heaney above the prosaic and parochial… But as ever, its a complex subject to deal with in a shortish post so each to their own, citizen...

15 Dec 24 - 12:13 PM (#4213546)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Sea...mus Heaney (1939-2013)
From: Big Al Whittle

Thank you f r the reply Roderick A Warner.

I can almost hear Neil Kinnock

15 Dec 24 - 12:18 PM (#4213547)
Subject: RE: Obit: Poet Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
From: Big Al Whittle

'Would the Prime Minister agree that his approach is prosaic, parochial and the feeble nonsense of an anarchial plutocracy!'

I'm sure there is much to consider in your response.