Seamus Heaney wasn't all that original as a poet--he was following firmly in the steps of Wordsworth and Frost and others. But as someone bridging the gulf in Ireland between peasant life and the literary tradition, he was a gift to the Irish, and one of the few late-20thc poets with a positive, empathetic, inclusive, and non-obfuscatory style. He'll be read when all the confessionals, identity-politics victim-signalers, and other self-involved writers have been forgotten.
Heaney imagined into being a world in which fullness of language meanings (naming) always brought its buried forces to bear upon specific place, time and consciousness. This cleared space is capacious of difference and contradiction, patient with tribe and love, and never disloyal to human truth. Heaney imagined or conjured the nation of Ireland as habitable and inviting - his gift to his people - whether Catholic or Protestant - and to the world as a model of how to live for us all. How we miss him?
Have a feeling readers of Seamus' work will gradually diminish. His kind of particularity of observation, his mastery of sound and sense is notably absent since "Globalism" impinged on the literary world. He'll never be forgotten of course. But one of his salient traits, his sensitivity to language, his "literary" diction has become less and less common as "internationalism" entered the scene. He fits comfortably into a "canon" that has been criticized as exemplifying, "white privilege". Ironic in that coming from a clan of farmers he identified with a dear perpetual place, the antithesis of privilege. Firstly a great writer, but more importantly a much loved man.
@Jim Newcombe Thanks for the response. Your Idealism is admirable. I come from a literary education that stressed "crafted words" over expression and/or emotion. But words can also be sung or performed. The written evolves from the oral heritage. I don't see a great future for those authors, the classic paradigms you referenced. Excepting in academia. What does it mean to be "written"? (ongoing debate). Obviously, there's a lot of (English) literacy online. A new type of colonialism. And a love/hate relationship with technology. Few dispute the fact the digital phenomenon has liberated what used to (pejoratively) be called "the third world," propelling them to the privileged center. Isn't that a good thing?
I'd just like to comment on these entries. This poetry has to be heard - it is aparticular kind of attentiveness it inculcates. It hears the language in all its levels of meaning. It bypasses any digital space. It is in conversation with its forebears - Frost, Hopkins, Yeats, Kavanagh, Keats, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Beowulf, Irish song, back through Virgil to Greek Tragedy. This is its place. The rest - the internet, the critical babble - is noise. Heaney will live in the ears of attentive readers - no matter how few they may be,
Well, my guess is that the current critics who reduce everything to identity politics will be long repudiated when people are still reading Heaney. Some of his poetry is probably too local and personal, but there are poems which rise to a higher level. And complex language has never appealed to the unwashed masses. So much their loss. They can educate themselves, as people have to with classical music. The best things are not the ones that are fast-food and unchallenging.
The biggest load of nonsense I've ever read in my entire life. Hughes and Heaney have a stronger place in the poetic canon now than at any point in their living careers. They are in no danger of being forgotten by readers, scholars of academics. They're consider the twin progenitors of the modern poetic voice. The idea of what you're suggesting not only reflects an ignorance of current academia and contemporary popularity but an utterly infantilising view of sociological and political matters that you fail to have even the most basic of understanding of. Larkin and Ezra Pound, two absolutely unrepentant racists would be in danger long before Heaney, and neither are. Both are well read and popular. If anything Larkin is seeing a revival. And for all your ranting about globalism, Heaney has recently had his work posthumously published in Spanish and it has been a runaway success. As was the first Chinese translation of Hughes' Crow.
My heart goes out to the surviving Heaneys.I wept many times as I watched this documentary.Whenever I read Seamus Heaney,he would put me in mind of Robert Frost.To me,he is the Robert Frost of Ireland.No hard feelings please.This is just an opinion.
Thanks so much for uploading!
This is the best, the most authentic and "from-the-heart" documentary you will ever see about Seamus Heaney!
There's a sweet,deeper one with Melvyn Bragg. This here is a homage to his family,and lovely Wife.
Winnie Wallace..... Mr Heaney. You were born to be a writer.We can only marvel at your word ability.
Seamus was the greatest of the 20th century, even ahead of Thomas
It isn’t a fucking competition
Simply a great piece about a great poet.
Anything Adam low touches, glows....
Great documentary on a great poet and human being. They don't make documentaries on poets like this in America.
Seamus Heaney wasn't all that original as a poet--he was following firmly in the steps of Wordsworth and Frost and others. But as someone bridging the gulf in Ireland between peasant life and the literary tradition, he was a gift to the Irish, and one of the few late-20thc poets with a positive, empathetic, inclusive, and non-obfuscatory style. He'll be read when all the confessionals, identity-politics victim-signalers, and other self-involved writers have been forgotten.
Heaney imagined into being a world in which fullness of language meanings (naming) always brought its buried forces to bear upon specific place, time and consciousness. This cleared space is capacious of difference and contradiction, patient with tribe and love, and never disloyal to human truth. Heaney imagined or conjured the nation of Ireland as habitable and inviting - his gift to his people - whether Catholic or Protestant - and to the world as a model of how to live for us all. How we miss him?
Beautifully put.Thank you.
GB & Ireland’s last great poet. Greatest since Yeats.
*Ireland’s poet, not Britain’s. ‘Be advised, the colour of my passport is green | And there was never a glass raised in our house to the queen.’
Actually can't believe you even mention GB. Oh I suppose I can, considering you's are always at it.
What about WH Auden or Dylan Thomas?
@@FranzBieberkopfAre you serious?
A Genius
🌹 🥀
Those bog bodies are over 2,000 yrs old 43:00
1:25' Answer: Greece (which Seamus loved)
3:50 aww :(
does anyone know where you can watch the kavanagh documentary narrated by Heaney at 26:25? Looks like it would be great!
Have a feeling readers of Seamus' work will gradually diminish. His kind of particularity of observation, his mastery of sound and sense is notably absent since "Globalism" impinged on the literary world. He'll never be forgotten of course. But one of his salient traits, his sensitivity to language, his "literary" diction has become less and less common as "internationalism" entered the scene. He fits comfortably into a "canon" that has been criticized as exemplifying, "white privilege". Ironic in that coming from a clan of farmers he identified with a dear perpetual place, the antithesis of privilege. Firstly a great writer, but more importantly a much loved man.
@Jim Newcombe Thanks for the response. Your Idealism is admirable. I come from a literary education that stressed "crafted words" over expression and/or emotion. But words can also be sung or performed. The written evolves from the oral heritage. I don't
see a great future for those authors, the classic paradigms you referenced. Excepting in academia. What does it mean to be "written"? (ongoing debate). Obviously, there's a lot of (English) literacy online. A new type of colonialism. And a love/hate relationship with technology. Few dispute the fact the digital phenomenon has liberated what used to (pejoratively) be called "the third world," propelling them to the privileged center. Isn't that a good thing?
I'd just like to comment on these entries. This poetry has to be heard - it is aparticular kind of attentiveness it inculcates. It hears the language in all its levels of meaning. It bypasses any digital space. It is in conversation with its forebears - Frost, Hopkins, Yeats, Kavanagh, Keats, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Beowulf, Irish song, back through Virgil to Greek Tragedy. This is its place. The rest - the internet, the critical babble - is noise. Heaney will live in the ears of attentive readers - no matter how few they may be,
‘Globalism’ is the kind of thing Alex Jones fans whinge about.
Well, my guess is that the current critics who reduce everything to identity politics will be long repudiated when people are still reading Heaney. Some of his poetry is probably too local and personal, but there are poems which rise to a higher level. And complex language has never appealed to the unwashed masses. So much their loss. They can educate themselves, as people have to with classical music. The best things are not the ones that are fast-food and unchallenging.
The biggest load of nonsense I've ever read in my entire life.
Hughes and Heaney have a stronger place in the poetic canon now than at any point in their living careers. They are in no danger of being forgotten by readers, scholars of academics. They're consider the twin progenitors of the modern poetic voice. The idea of what you're suggesting not only reflects an ignorance of current academia and contemporary popularity but an utterly infantilising view of sociological and political matters that you fail to have even the most basic of understanding of.
Larkin and Ezra Pound, two absolutely unrepentant racists would be in danger long before Heaney, and neither are. Both are well read and popular. If anything Larkin is seeing a revival.
And for all your ranting about globalism, Heaney has recently had his work posthumously published in Spanish and it has been a runaway success. As was the first Chinese translation of Hughes' Crow.
My heart goes out to the surviving Heaneys.I wept many times as I watched this documentary.Whenever I read Seamus Heaney,he would put me in mind of Robert Frost.To me,he is the Robert Frost of Ireland.No hard feelings please.This is just an opinion.
Critics - especially ones leaning towards cryptography - are not to be trusted. Vendler least of all.
Locking the swings, 🙄 is that really what jesus died for?🤔
Come on, it’s a step forward from the girl in the bog.
@@nostromo737 what girl?