Seamus Heaney: The Making of the Poet

310 Pages·1993·20.593 MB·English

by  Michael Parker (auth.)

SEAMUS HEANEY

Seamus Heaney
The Making of the Poet
Michael Parker
Senior Lecturer in English
Liverpool Institute of Higher Education
MACMILlAN
©Michael Parker 1993
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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