Opened Ground: Poems 1966 1996

Description

When Seamus Heaney prepared Opened Ground it came as close to being a 'Collected Poems' as the author cared to make it. The edition draws from four decades of Seamus Heaney's verse, together with examples of his work as a translator, from his scintillating debut, Death of a Naturalist, to The Spirit Level, winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year. The book concludes with 'Crediting Poetry', the speech with which Seamus Heaney accepted the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded to him, in the words of the Swedish Academy of Letters, for his 'works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth'. Opened Ground remains the most comprehensive edition of his work that Seamus Heaney ever made.

Promotion info

The landmark selection of poems from the greatest poet of our age

Author description

Seamus Heaney was born in County Derry in Northern Ireland. Death of a Naturalist, his first collection of poems, appeared in 1966, and was followed by poetry, criticism and translations which established him as the leading poet of his generation. In 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and twice won the Whitbread Book of the Year, for The Spirit Level (1996) and Beowulf (1999). Stepping Stones, a book of interviews conducted by Dennis O'Driscoll, appeared in 2008; Human Chain, his last volume of poems, was awarded the 2010 Forward Prize for Best Collection. He died in 2013.