Student Guide to Seamus Heaney

The purpose of this series is to promote the study of writing in the English language through the introduction of the major figures writing in English throughout the ages. They provide an analytical and historical framework for understanding their subjects. In this critical study of the poetry of Seamus Heaney, Warren Hope finds a sharp disparity between the size and nature of the Irish poet's reputation and the quality of his verse. Hope argues that Heaney is best when he has something moving to say and allows himself to say it in personal, often akward language that reads as if it has been compelled. He too often writes when he has little or nothing to say, and in language that is contrived and artificial - the result of ambition and professionalism, rather than inspiration.