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Sheamus Heaney: any admirers?


mint
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I'm a great admirer too.

I think it a pity to describe him as an Irish poet, I see him much more as a poet of the countryside. His writing about our fellow creatures shows the mixture of fascination and revulsion, completely untouched by sentimentality, which is experienced by many country children. That, together with his descriptions of how the land has been cared for over hundreds if not thousands of years will, I think, endear him to almost any country children. Even those growing up in darkest Wales or like me, in deepest Derbyshire.

Hoddy

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Oh, Hoddy, how happy you make me![:D]

You know how it is, you love something and it's soooo good to find someone else who loves it too!

So...besides David McNickle and "digs", I wonder what else we have in common?![Www]

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We seem to be losing quite a few people important to us. I'm an admirer of Seamus Heaney, having come to know to know his work quite a few years ago when I was asked to buy our Irish headmaster's presents. I decided on a book of Seamus Heaney's poetry and an acer for his garden, and I usually hear about both when a group of us meet up now and again for lunch. Having browsed through his poetry in the local bookshop then, I became hooked on the pictures he painted with his words. I love 'The Rattle Bag', the anthology he compiled with Ted Hughes too - a superb collection aimed at youngsters, but enjoyable for all.

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I am afraid that those poems of his that I know have always come across to me as rather 'flat'.

He has many short lines which I find breathless, and doesn't seem a master of rhythm metre and the music of verse, which is very important to my appreciation of poetry. Nor does he use many of the poetic forms that give discipline and structure..

This is not intended to spoil other people's obvious appreciation and admiration, but it is the reason why his work never caught my imagination.

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  • 4 weeks later...
A bit late to this but I'm a massive Seamus Heaney fan. And I have to disagree with you, NormanH (not something I would normally do!), as I think it is precisely his disregard for structure that appeals! As for music...his poems are infused with a lyricism that merits reading them regardless of the amazing content. But they need to be read aloud.

On top of all that, he was the kind of bloke you could imagine having a pint with. Totally grounded despite his amazing talent and international fame.

Like I said, I'm a massive fan!
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Hey, AA, where've you been all this time?!

Of course, it's never too late to come to Seamus Heaney[:D]  Me, I just love the way he describes things and gets to the "heart of the matter" so seemingly effortlessly.

Oh, to have had a pint of guiness or whatever with him would have been a lifetime's memory to treasure!

I'm busy en ce moment but I will come back to your other thread about that thriller!

Too may exclamation marks, I know it well but, sometimes in life, one just feels full of wonder and can't help shouting it from the rooftops[:D][:D][:D]

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