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Seamus Heaney: The Making of the Poet PDF

310 Pages·1993·20.593 MB·English
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SEAMUS HEANEY Seamus Heaney The Making of the Poet Michael Parker Senior Lecturer in English Liverpool Institute of Higher Education MACMILlAN ©Michael Parker 1993 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence petmitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WlP 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First edition 1993 Reprinted 1994 Published by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-61879-0 ISBN 978-0-230-39025-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230390256 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. II 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 03 02 0 I 00 99 98 97 96 95 for AJeksandra, Judith, Juliet and Catherine Contents List of Illustrations VIII Acknawledgements ix Preface x Map xi 1 A Good Anchor: Home and Education, 1939-61 2 Affinities, 1961-66 28 3 Pioneer, 1966-69 61 Death of a Naturalist 61 Door into Ihe Dark 76 4 Exposure, 1969-75 89 Wintering Out 89 North 117 5 Qukkenings, 1975-B4 152 Field Work 152 Station Island 177 6 Space, 1984-91 211 TIle Haw umtern 211 Seeing Things 217 Notes 222 Bibliography 277 Index of Poems, Collections (lnd Essays 284 Index of General References 288 V" List of Illustrations 1 Bam, Mossbawn 2 The Pump from 'Changes', an Omphalos 3 The Eel Fisheries, Toome 4 St. Columb's College, Derry 5 Queen's University, Belfast 6 Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, John Hewitt, Seamus Heaney, Cushendall, 1969 (courtesy of Arts Council of Northern Ireland) 7 David Hammond (courtesy of David Hammond) 8 T. P. Flanagan 9 Seamus Heaney and Philip Hobsbaum, Glasgow, 1989 lOa The Windeby girl, the subject of Heaney's 'Punishment'. He /b encountered this image in P. V. Glob's The Bog People (courtesy of Archaologisches Landesmuseum der Christian Albrechts Universitat, Schloss Gottor£, Schleswig) viii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Education Authorities of Cheshire and Bury, and the Liverpool Institute of Higher Education and the University of Liverpool for their financial support while I was at work on this book. Considerable support was given to me by Michael Jones, the English Adviser for Cheshire, Sister Mary Kelly of Holy Cross College, Bury, and by Patrick Swinden of the University of Manchester, my supervisor in the early stages of the project. I am grateful for the generous help I received from those I interviewed, Michael Longley, Frank Ormsby, Sean O'Kelly, T. P. Flanagan, David Hammond, Seamus Deane, Ann and Hugh Heaney, Harry Chambers, Raymond Gallagher, George McWhirter, and Philip Hobsbaum, who has been consistently encouraging and supportive. Many of the above provided me with rqre source material, as did Queen's University Library, Belfast. My interests in literature and history were fostered by my parents, and by excellent teachers at school, John Foster, Brian Hayward, Marcus Baker and Doreen Wren, and at the University of Reading, where I was taught by Ian Fletcher, John Goode and Christopher Salvesen. Colleagues at Holy Cross College, especially Kate Doran and Sandra Cameron, gave invaluable advice. An earlier version of the section on Seeing Things appeared as a review in The Honest Ulstennan, Belfast, whose editors, Frank Ormsby and Robert Johnstone, have been 'confirmatory presences' to me. My editors at Macmillan, Frances Arnold and Margaret Cannon, have been extremely patient and helpful over the six years I have been researching and writing. Finally, my thanks to Seamus Heaney for his kindness and cour tesy in answering questions in person and by post, and for correcting factual errors. Quotations from the published and unpublished poems and other material by Seamus Heaney are reproduced by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd, the B.B.C., and by Seamus Heaney himself. (For a complete list of references and acknowl edgments see Notes and Bibliography.) ix

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