Seamus Heaney's early work : poetic responsibility and the troubles

108 Pages·2010·4.226 MB·English

by  Heaney, Seamus, Xerri, Daniel, Heaney, Seamus

SEAMUS HEANEY’S
EARLY WORK

SEAMUS HEANEY’S
EARLY WORK

POETIC RESPONSIBILITY
AND THE TROUBLES

Daniel Xerri

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Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Xerri, Daniel.
Seamus Heaney's early work : poetic responsibility and the troubles / Daniel
Xerri. Irish Research Series # 59
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-933146-91-1
ISBN-10: 1-933146-91-5
1. Heaney, Seamus, 1939—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
PR6058.E2Z98 2010
821'.914--dc22
2010023113

Copyright 2010 Daniel Xerri

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book
may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Box 60728
Cambridge Station
Palo Alto, CA. 94306

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to order: 650-329-0685
To my mother

CONTENTS

Abbreviations ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgements xv

Chapter 1 Heaney’s Poet and Tightrope-Walking 1

Chapter 2 Growing into a King of the Dark: 17
Death of a Naturalist (1966) and Door into the Dark
(1969)

Chapter 3 The Swinging Tongue in Vowelling Embrace: 37
Wintering Out (1972)

Chapter 4 Unearthing Befitting Emblems of Adversity: North 57
(1975)

Bibliography 87

Index 91

ABBREVIATIONS

DN Death of a Naturalist

DD Door into the Dark

WO Wintering Out

N North

OG Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996

P Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968-1978

GT The Government of the Tongue: The 1986 T.S. Eliot Memorial Lectures
and other Critical Writings