Seamus Heaney Opened Ground

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  • Opened Ground
  • Seamus Heaney
  • Hardcover: 512 pages
  • Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1 edition (November 9, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0374235171
  • ISBN-13: 978-0374235178

As selected by the author, Opened Ground includes the essential work from Heaney's twelve previous books of poetry, as well as new sequences drawn from two of his landmark translations, The Cure at Troy and Sweeney Astray, and several previously uncollected poems. Heaney's voice is like no other--"by turns mythological and journalistic, rural and sophisticated, reminiscent and impatient, stern and yielding, curt and expansive" (Helen Vendler, The New Yorker)--and this is a one-volume testament to the musicality and precision of that voice. The book closes with Heaney's Nobel Lecture: "Crediting Poetry."
My Thoughts
I believe that much of what we read is about perception. As such, my capacity to view things of relative importance is somewhat hindered by my priorities at that time. 

 It's easy to connect to something when I'm devoted to the opportunity. So,  lately, I've been skimming my bookshelves and the internet and switching between fiction and nonfiction to poetry and sonnets.

 With the stated, this month of August I celebrated the birth of someone I hold very dear - my mother. In August, I  also mourn the passing of an author whose work I never tire of - Seamus Heaney.  

 Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past." 

 So, with this month being the anniversary of his death (he passed August 30 in 2013), I urge you to scout out Seamus Heaney's work if you haven't already. 

 Heaney taught at Harvard University and served as the Oxford Professor of Poetry. He is probably best known for  When All the Others Were Away at Mass which was named Ireland's best-loved poem from the past century.

 I would not be lying to tell you I could sit all day and listen to videos of him reciting his work. His inflection draws me in and his words strike me like a melody.

 Most of all, I love that Heaney's work seems uncomplicated and that simple tasks are explored and the practical is held in high regard. And by practical, I mean he's realistic. He shows readers, through different rhythms, the successes, and the suffering. 

 Take two of my favorites by Heaney,  Death of a Naturalist where we see the fascination and fear of life cycles and Mid-Term Break which depicts the ultimate tragedy where the agonizing pain of parental bereavement is closely observed as a sibling fixedly gazes on in shock and disbelief.

 Yes! Seamus Heaney reveals to readers the inevitable ups and downs of life.