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The Poems of Seamus Heaney
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'More than any other poet since Wordsworth he can make us understand that the outside world is not outside, but what we are made of.' John CareyThis is the long-awaited, definitive edition of Seamus Heaney's poetry. It encompasses all the poems Heaney published in his lifetime...
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See moreHere is the definitive edition of Seamus Heaney's poetry, with illuminating critical notes, including a substantial number of uncollected poems and a selection of poems never published before.
Here is the definitive edition of Seamus Heaney's poetry, with illuminating critical notes, including a substantial number of uncollected poems and a selection of poems never published before.
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Description
'More than any other poet since Wordsworth he can make us understand that the outside world is not outside, but what we are made of.' John Carey
This is the long-awaited, definitive edition of Seamus Heaney's poetry. It encompasses all the poems Heaney published in his lifetime as well as the small number that appeared after his death: twelve single volumes, from Death of a Naturalist (1966) to Human Chain (2010), and those poems published in pamphlets, journals and magazines or with limited circulation. In addition, the book includes a selection of unpublished material chosen by the poet's family.
It is a body of work that, in its entirety, resounds with the 'lyrical beauty and ethical depth' cited by the Nobel committee: poems 'which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.'
Critical introductions to each collection and notes that illuminate the history and development of the poems make this the essential volume for admirers of Heaney's work.
'Heaney's voice, by turns mythological and journalistic, rural and sophisticated, reminiscent and impatient, stern and yielding, curt and expansive, is one of a suppleness almost equal to consciousness itself.' Helen Vendler
'His is "closeup" poetry - close up to thought, to the world, to the emotions. Few writers at work today, in verse or fiction, can give the sense of rich, fecund, lived life that Heaney does.' John Banville
'These poems find - in the dowser's gift and the child's perception of the world - images of the marvellous that are also wonderfully grounded. . . Heaney is a poet who deserves to be read in entirety.' Jamie McKendrick
'For Heaney, there were marvels enough in this world, and never mind the next. Ordinary objects and places - a sofa, a wireless, a satchel, a gust of wind, the sound of rain - were sanctified.' Blake Morrison
This is the long-awaited, definitive edition of Seamus Heaney's poetry. It encompasses all the poems Heaney published in his lifetime as well as the small number that appeared after his death: twelve single volumes, from Death of a Naturalist (1966) to Human Chain (2010), and those poems published in pamphlets, journals and magazines or with limited circulation. In addition, the book includes a selection of unpublished material chosen by the poet's family.
It is a body of work that, in its entirety, resounds with the 'lyrical beauty and ethical depth' cited by the Nobel committee: poems 'which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.'
Critical introductions to each collection and notes that illuminate the history and development of the poems make this the essential volume for admirers of Heaney's work.
'Heaney's voice, by turns mythological and journalistic, rural and sophisticated, reminiscent and impatient, stern and yielding, curt and expansive, is one of a suppleness almost equal to consciousness itself.' Helen Vendler
'His is "closeup" poetry - close up to thought, to the world, to the emotions. Few writers at work today, in verse or fiction, can give the sense of rich, fecund, lived life that Heaney does.' John Banville
'These poems find - in the dowser's gift and the child's perception of the world - images of the marvellous that are also wonderfully grounded. . . Heaney is a poet who deserves to be read in entirety.' Jamie McKendrick
'For Heaney, there were marvels enough in this world, and never mind the next. Ordinary objects and places - a sofa, a wireless, a satchel, a gust of wind, the sound of rain - were sanctified.' Blake Morrison
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780571340385
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 09 October 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Edition: Main
Contributors:
- Edited by Bernard O'Donoghue
- Edited by Matthew Hollis
- Edited by Matthew Hollis
- Edited by Matthew Hollis
- Edited by Dr Rosie Lavan
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 156.0mm
Height: 234.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 1296
Collections
About the Author
Seamus Heaney was born in County Derry in Northern Ireland in 1939. Death of a Naturalist, his first collection, appeared in 1966, and was followed by poetry, criticism and translations which established him as the leading poet of his generation. He died in 2013.
Rosie Lavan is an Associate Professor in the School of English at Trinity College Dublin. She is author of Seamus Heaney and Society (2020).
Bernard O'Donoghue is an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College. His seventh collection of poetry, The Anchorage, was published in 2025.
Matthew Hollis is a poet, editor and biographer. He is the author of Earth House, a collection of poems, published in 2023.
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Beowulf
The whole performance is wonderfully intermediate - poised between the Bible and folk wisdom, between the Light Ages and the Dark Ages - and at the same time pulverisingly actual in its language. Heaney has caught the balance of these brilliantly; he has made a masterpiece out of a masterpiece. Andrew Motion, Financial Times What characterises this Beowulf is its...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Opened Ground
Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996 comes as close to being a Collected Poems as its author cares to make it. It replaces his New Selected Poems 1966-1987, giving a fuller selection from each of the volumes represented there and adding large parts of those that have appeared since, together with examples of his work as a translator. The book concludes with...Paperback$5000Elsewhere:$5500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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His is close-up poetry—close up to thought, to the world, to the emotions. Few writers at work today, in verse or fiction, can give the sense of rich, fecund, lived life that Heaney does.' New Selected Poems 1966-1987 brings together works that echo with the deep connection to the natural world and human experience. 'More than any other poet since...Paperback$3400Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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Widely praised on its first publication in 1987, The Haw Lantern ventured into new imaginative territory with poems exploring the theme of loss—including a celebrated sonnet sequence concerning the death of the poet's mother—joined by meditations on the conscience of the writer and exercises in an allegorical vein. This beautifully designed edition forms part of a series of ten titles...Hardback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
North
By conjuring aspects of a shared Northern European experience—its peculiar landscapes and weathers, its sea-faring incursions, the vernaculars of its buried and living peoples—Heaney found a way of articulating a vision of Ireland in which the disruptions and violences of the Troubles could be reflected too. North is set apart from the rest of Heaney's oeuvre because of its brilliant...Hardback$2999Elsewhere:$3499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
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Seamus Heaney was 'the greatest poet of our age' (Guardian). From his remarkable debut in 1966, he pioneered the poetry of our times across five decades of cultural and political change, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. Field Work, his fifth volume, from 1979, is a collection of poems that were among the finest he would...PaperbackSold Out -
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