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Seamus Heaney

シーモス・ヒーニー

Seamus Heaney

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1939-04-13 （Tamniaran (near Castledawson), County Londonderry, Northern Ireland）
Died
2013-08-30 （Blackrock Clinic, Dublin, Ireland） age 74
Nationality
Irish
Languages
English
Religion
Roman Catholic
Residence History
Bellaghy (home town) → Wicklow (moved 1972) → Sandymount, Dublin (1976–2013) → United States (Harvard affiliation, 1981–2006)

Career

Occupations
poet, playwright, translator, academic
Active Years
1966-2013
Affiliations
Aosdána, Royal Irish Academy, Harvard University (affiliation), Field Day Theatre Company (board member)
Memberships
Aosdána (member; Saoi), Royal Irish Academy (member), Royal Society of Literature (Honorary Fellow), American Philosophical Society (elected)
Influenced By
W. B. Yeats, Patrick Kavanagh, Ted Hughes, Robert Lowell, Czesław Miłosz
Influenced
Paul Muldoon, Dennis O'Driscoll, Contemporary Irish poets and translators

Education

Queen's University Belfast
English Language and Literature / English Language and Literature
Degree: First Class Honours
Period: 1957–1961
Year of Graduation: 1961
Country: Northern Ireland, UK
Graduated with First Class Honours
St Joseph's Teacher Training College (Belfast)
Teacher training / Education
Period: 1961–1962
Country: Northern Ireland, UK
Teacher certification; began teaching in Belfast

Awards

Eric Gregory Award
1966
Organization: The Society of Authors
Result: 受賞
Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
1968
Work: Death of a Naturalist
Organization: Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
Result: 受賞
Duff Cooper Prize
1975
Work: North
Organization: Duff Cooper Prize
Result: 受賞
Nobel Prize in Literature
1995
Organization: Nobel Foundation
Result: 受賞
Whitbread (Costa) Book of the Year Award
1996
Work: The Spirit Level
Category: 詩集
Organization: Whitbread / Costa Book Awards
Result: 受賞
Whitbread (Costa) Book of the Year Award
1999
Work: Beowulf: A New Verse Translation
Category: 翻訳
Organization: Whitbread / Costa Book Awards
Result: 受賞
T. S. Eliot Prize
2006
Work: District and Circle
Category: 詩集
Organization: T. S. Eliot Prize
Result: 受賞
David Cohen Prize for Literature
2009
Category: 文学功労
Organization: David Cohen Prize
Result: 受賞
Griffin Poetry Prize, Lifetime Recognition Award
2012
Category: 生涯功労
Organization: Griffin Poetry Prize
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Death of a Naturalist

1966 Poetry collection

Heaney's first major collection, focusing on rural life, childhood experience and the sensory details of nature; established his reputation.

naturememorychildhoodplace

North

1975 Poetry collection

Uses bog-body imagery and archaic myth to explore history, violence and the politics of Northern Ireland.

historyviolencelandmyth

The Spirit Level

1996 Poetry collection

A late-20th-century collection addressing moral vision, the ordinary and the lyrical powers of language.

ethicseveryday beautylanguage

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation

1999 Translation (Old English → Modern English)

A modern-verse translation of the Old English epic, notable for its attention to the original's music and diction.

epictranslationmusic of language

District and Circle

2006 Poetry collection

A later collection juxtaposing urban observation and personal memory; winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize.

urbanitymemorypersonal history

Human Chain

2010 Poetry collection

Reflective poems influenced by his 2006 stroke; themes of vulnerability, care and continuity. Winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection.

recoveryvulnerabilityhuman connection

Bibliography

  • Death of a Naturalist (1966) and many others
  • Door into the Dark (1969)
  • Wintering Out (1972)
  • North (1975)
  • Field Work (1979)
  • Station Island (1984)
  • The Spirit Level (1996)
  • Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (1999)
  • District and Circle (2006)
  • Human Chain (2010)

Adaptations

  • Stage adaptations (e.g. The Cure at Troy)

Translations by Author

  • Sweeney Astray (from Irish)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
lyrical, richly imagisticrooted in local landscapes and everyday lifetranslation-aware style that values the music of earlier languages
Recurring Motifs
bogs and peatfamily and parental memorydigging/working the earthdeath and bereavementhistory and mythic imagery

Health

  • Stroke (2006)
    2006–2006（発症・回復期）
    Canceled public engagements for months; subsequent work (e.g. Human Chain) reflects recovery and vulnerability.

Legacy

Seamus Heaney, Nobel Laureate in Literature (1995), was an internationally influential poet whose work rooted Irish place and memory in highly musical language. Also acclaimed as a translator and public intellectual, his legacy is preserved in archives, centres and continued scholarly attention.

Museums

  • Seamus Heaney HomePlace Bellaghy, Northern Ireland Opened in 2016
  • Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Queen's University Belfast Opened in 2004

Academic Societies

  • Aosdána
  • Royal Irish Academy

Archives

  • National Library of Ireland (personal papers and drafts)
  • Emory University (Heaney archive holdings)
  • Queen's University Belfast (Seamus Heaney Centre holdings)

In Popular Culture

  • The enthusiastic audiences for his readings were nicknamed 'Heaneyboppers'.
  • Widely included in school syllabi and anthologies, influencing poetry education internationally.

Quotes

  • “The work of poetry should help bring about the most radiant conditions for human beings to inhabit; it should be more than a printout of the given circumstances of its time and place.”
    Source: Lecture 'Joy Or Night: Last Things in the Poetry of W. B. Yeats and Philip Larkin' (1993) (1993)
  • “Noli timere (Be not afraid)”
    Source: Reported last words to his wife, reported by family (2013) (2013)

Trivia

  • Recorded over 12 hours of spoken-word readings for his 70th birthday.
  • His gravestone bears the line 'Walk on air against your better judgement' from his poem 'The Gravel Walks'.
  • He learned of the Nobel Prize while on holiday in Greece.