Peter Sirr Essay
‘in step with what escaped me’: the poetry of seamus heaney
By Peter Sirr
contents
‘In Step With What Escaped Me’:
The Poetry Of Seamus Heaney by Peter Sirr
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CD Content Listings cd 1 Death of a Naturalist cd 2 Door into the Dark cd 3 Wintering Out cd 4 North cd 5 Field Work cd 6 Station Island (part one) cd 7 Station Island (part two & three) cd 8 The Haw Lantern cd 9 Seeing Things (part one) cd 10 Seeing Things (part two) cd 11 The Spirit Level (part one) cd 12 The Spirit Level (part two) cd 13 Electric Light (part one) cd 14 Electric Light (part two) cd 15 District and Circle
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Acknowledgements
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‘In Step With What Escaped Me’:
The Poetry Of Seamus Heaney
By Peter Sirr
Two years ago I was driving along a country road near Strokestown in County Roscommon. It was dark and I was slightly nervous because I didn’t know the road well and I was looking for the local secondary school in whose assembly hall Seamus Heaney would be giving a reading. Suddenly out of the darkness loomed a huge ash tree on whose branches I could make out a large cardboard sign with the words ‘Seamus Heaney’ in luminous paint and an arrow pointing to a lane on the right. The improvised sign, the reading that followed to a packed and enthralled audience, and the excitement afterwards, testified to a popularity and a rapport with readership and audience very unusual even in a country which grants occasional notice to poets and poetry. John Banville caught this aspect well in the foreword he wrote to the edition of Seamus Heaney that the Guardian issued in its Great Poets of the
20th Century series in 2008. ‘Few poets find a way into the inner ear of the multitude,’ he said. Banville’s point was also that it’s unusual for a poetry of this order to insinuate itself into the public affection, a poetry that offers complex witness to the physical and psychical disturbances of violence at the
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Collected
By Peter Sirr
contents
‘In Step With What Escaped Me’:
The Poetry Of Seamus Heaney by Peter Sirr
22
5
CD Content Listings cd 1 Death of a Naturalist cd 2 Door into the Dark cd 3 Wintering Out cd 4 North cd 5 Field Work cd 6 Station Island (part one) cd 7 Station Island (part two & three) cd 8 The Haw Lantern cd 9 Seeing Things (part one) cd 10 Seeing Things (part two) cd 11 The Spirit Level (part one) cd 12 The Spirit Level (part two) cd 13 Electric Light (part one) cd 14 Electric Light (part two) cd 15 District and Circle
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
Acknowledgements
65
‘In Step With What Escaped Me’:
The Poetry Of Seamus Heaney
By Peter Sirr
Two years ago I was driving along a country road near Strokestown in County Roscommon. It was dark and I was slightly nervous because I didn’t know the road well and I was looking for the local secondary school in whose assembly hall Seamus Heaney would be giving a reading. Suddenly out of the darkness loomed a huge ash tree on whose branches I could make out a large cardboard sign with the words ‘Seamus Heaney’ in luminous paint and an arrow pointing to a lane on the right. The improvised sign, the reading that followed to a packed and enthralled audience, and the excitement afterwards, testified to a popularity and a rapport with readership and audience very unusual even in a country which grants occasional notice to poets and poetry. John Banville caught this aspect well in the foreword he wrote to the edition of Seamus Heaney that the Guardian issued in its Great Poets of the
20th Century series in 2008. ‘Few poets find a way into the inner ear of the multitude,’ he said. Banville’s point was also that it’s unusual for a poetry of this order to insinuate itself into the public affection, a poetry that offers complex witness to the physical and psychical disturbances of violence at the
44
Collected