But it also examines ideas about life, expectation, disappointment, and many other themes that are just below the surface. Sure, "Blackberry-Picking" is about the memory of picking blackberries every summer. Although the subject matter might be all about the simple, the rural, and the domestic, the themes and ideas that Heaney's poems explore are much grander than that. "Blackberry-Picking" is from his first collection, Death of a Naturalist (published in 1966), and is one of many poems in the book that explores simple events and images of the natural world where Heaney first lived.
We wouldn't be surprised to find that the pen was a permanent extension of his right hand.ĭespite his extensive education and having lived in many city-slicker places, Heaney's poetry remains very much rooted in the farm life and imagery of where he grew up.
Apparently fourteen major collections of poetry weren't quite enough for the guy! He was a pretty busy bee. Not only is Heaney the greatest thing since sliced bread as far as poetry goes, he also wrote tons of prose (a lot of it about poetry), two plays, and a healthy handful of translations. After that, he lived and taught all over Northern Ireland and England, as well as in a few U.S. By his teen years, Heaney was sent away to boarding school and eventually ended up at Queens University in Belfast, a much bigger, much more metropolitan place than his hometown. He had working-class parents and spent his early years on the family farm (called Mossbawm), where he began his education. Heaney was born and raised in Northern Ireland – more specifically, in rural County Derry. If Yeats had a great-grandson of poetry, it would have been Heaney. We love to compare generations of greats, don't we? LeBron James is this generation's Michael Jordan, Jay-Z is the new Biggie, and so on. Not only is he sometimes similar stylistically to Yeats, but Heaney also seems to have as great an influence on poetry today as Yeats did during his time.
If poetry writing were an Olympic event, he would have won gold.Ī lot of critics and poetry people consider Heaney to be the finest poet since W.B. He received more honors and awards for his work than we care to count, including the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.
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