2.  Seamus Heaney was born in Northern Ireland in 1939, he was one of nine children.  He first began publishing poetry in 1962 when he was living and working as a teacher, in Belfast, where he had studied literature at university.  Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995, recognising that he had produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction“ (Alfred Nobel).  Heaney died in 2013.

3.  Heaney’s parents came from very different social backgrounds (rural and industrial) he considered this to be a tension throughout his life.  He grew up on a small farm which dealt primarily in cattle.  When he was 12 years old he won a scholarship to St Columb College in Derry.  While he was studying here, his younger brother Christopher died (age 4), in a road accident. Heaney wrote about this in his poems.

4.  Throughout his career as a poet, Heaney also worked as a lecturer in universities in Ireland, England and the United States.  He published numerous volumes of poetry during his career which stretched from the early 1960s, to his death in 2013.  Heaney also won a number of literary awards and honours, including the Nobel Prize, The Griffin Poetry Prize Life Time Recognition Award and was elected as a Saoi of Aosdana (the Irish Association of Artists)

5.  Death of a Naturalist- 1966  Field Work- 1979  The Spirit Level- 1996  District and Circle- 2006  Human Chain- 2010

6.  His work often deals with the local surroundings of Ireland, particularly in Northern Ireland, where he was born.  Allusions to sectarian difference, widespread in Northern Ireland through his lifetime, can be found in his poems.  He was concerned, as a poet and a translator, with the English language itself as it is spoken in Ireland but also as spoken elsewhere and in other times  He is known for engaging with poetry as a necessary engine for cultural and personal change.

7.  How does the author describe Heaney’s personality?  How does Heaney’s poetry contrast with poetic trends? How was this appealing to some readers?  What subjects did Heaney explore in his poetry?  According to the author, what makes Heaney a great poet?  How does Heaney’s poetry respond to the political unrest in Ireland according to the author of this article?

8.  Find and record the meanings of the following words.  Nostalgia  Anarchic  Archaic  Dissonance  Bigotry  Reconcile  Redolent