Today would have been Seamus Heaney’s 83rd birthday. “I had my existence. I was there. Me in place and the place in me.”
Today would have been Seamus Heaney’s 83rd birthday. “I had my existence. I was there. Me in place and the place in me.”
19 comments
The one poet from Leaving Cert English I genuinely enjoyed studying.
A brilliant poet.
Amazing poet
I will arise and go now.
Some say /u/seamusheaneysghost wanders the halls of /r/ireland.
Turf
I always felt there was a “warmth” to his poetry that was lacking in a lot of other poets (I still get frostbite from Yeats and for some reason read any of his stuff in Dev’s voice)
An 83 foot box, a foot for every year
Digging. Gives me chills every time I read it. A masterpiece
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them
Legend.
It sounds very Buddhist.
I was at the EU enlargement ceremony in 2004 where he read Beacons at Bealtaine. I found the whole thing quite surreal.
Sorely missed and never forgotten.
[The man put the hope and dreams for my two sons into words.](https://youtu.be/g6mxwMvzwqU)
A poet who wrote for himself, and in doing so, explained everyone else to ourselves.
Happy Birthday Friend. Rest well.
Postscript is one of my favourites:
https://vimeo.com/73559117
Not as talented as Bono
I always thought Irish poetry was shite, fair enough we aren’t really great at anything as a nation, but why hang on to poetry,
I remember when he died and our chaplain gave the school the news over the intercom. As she was reading a tribute to him she dropped the microphone thing, quietly said ‘bollocks’ then after realising it was on the whole time blurted out “SEAMUS HEANY R.I.P.” at like x3 the speed you’d normally say it.
A fantastic poet but unfortunately every time I hear of him I can’t help but think of that moment.
I’ve read some parts of his Beowulf translation, truly a masterful work.