Sydney enjoys a high reputation in Ireland. He is a star figure in Ireland, and his poems have become a part of Irish culture and ordinary Irish life. Paul muldoon, a Pulitzer Prize winner and the poetry editor of The New Yorker, commented: "Although Ye Zhi is as famous as he is and plays an important role in public life, to be honest, he has never enjoyed the fame like Sydney and has no ability to touch ordinary people like him." The New York Times also published Heaney's obituary: "Heaney is almost inseparable from the Irish country. He is like a rock star, but he happens to be a poet. " Publishers Weekly also wrote: "Sydney has an aura that only a few contemporary poets have, if not a star-like power. This kind of gas field comes from his lion-like physique, from his real civic responsibility, and from the straightforwardness in his poems. "
Many people have noticed the combination of Irish tradition and modernity in Heaney's poems. Poet Richard Murphy said: "Because of his birth and growth, Sydney belongs to the ancient world of Irish countryside and traditional culture, and its roots are deeply rooted in its glorious past of pre-Protestantism;" But his education brought him to the modern world, where he discovered English poetry. "
However, some people are dissatisfied with Heaney's poetry writing style and think it is "too superficial". 1980, Al Alvarez, a poet and poetry critic, wrote in an article published in the New York Book Review: "If Heini represents the highest achievement in writing poetry, then the whole anxious and exploratory modern poetry is right-leaning. Robert Lowell and his, Sylvia Plath and hers were all wrong: trying to clear the way for senses, rules and forms in uncontrolled and closed darkness only mistook illness for inspiration. "