SeamusHeaney (1939 April13-2013 August) is an Irish poet. Born in Maubourne County, Derry County, Northern Ireland, he is a devout Catholic family and has been farming for generations. Heaney is not only a poet, but also an expert in poetics. Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded by 1995. His Nobel Prize speech "Thanks to Poetics" (1996) is also an important poetic work. He also wrote a play. Heaney's translation of the old English epic Beowulf (2000) into modern English caused a sensation. He is recognized as the best English poet and talented literary critic in the world today. Heaney received a formal English education since childhood, and graduated from the English Department of Queen's University with 196 1 first place. After graduation, I worked as a middle school teacher for one year and read a lot of modern Irish and English poems at the same time, in order to find a way to combine English literary tradition with rural life experience in Delhi County. 1966 became famous for his collection of poems "The Death of a Naturalist". 1966- 1972, Sydney was a lecturer in modern literature at her alma mater and experienced the riots caused by the demonstrations held by Catholics in Northern Ireland for civil rights. 20 13 On August 30th, Irish poet seamus heaney died at the age of 74.
Chinese name: seamus heaney.
Semuseni
Nationality: Ireland
Place of birth: Maosibang County, Delhi County, Ireland
Date of birth:1April 93913rd.
Date of death: August 30th, 20 13.
Occupation: poet
Graduate school: Queen's University.
Main achievements: 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Masterpiece: The Death of a Naturalist
Personal experience
one's early years
1939, seamus heaney was born in Musburn County, Derry County, Northern Ireland, a Catholic family who has been farming for generations. After Sydney won a scholarship to enter St. Columbus College, a boarding school in Delhi, Sydney met john hume (the leader of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement, who won the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize). While studying at Queen's University in Belfast, he became a member of the "Northern Poets" generation. 196 1 graduated with the first place from the English Department of Queen's University of Belfast. After graduation, I worked as a middle school teacher for one year and read a lot of modern Irish and English poems at the same time, in order to find a way to combine English literary tradition with rural life experience in Delhi County. In 1966, Heaney published his first book of poetry, The Death of a Naturalist, which became famous in one fell swoop. His poems combine English literary tradition with Irish folk rural life, and calmly explore and taste the Irish national spirit with the eyes of modern civilization. However, when he published his poems in his early years, Sydney always used the pen name "Insetus", which means "uncertainty"-that's because people on the farm used plows when they were busy with their backs to the sky, and they didn't need pens at all; Secondly, in Northern Ireland, which is dominated by Protestants, Sydney, which believes in Roman Catholicism, belongs to the "minority" who is easily bullied.
Towards maturity
At that time, the shy teenager was getting closer and closer to becoming a poet, but between the lines of his poems, the earthy atmosphere of spring fertilization and cultivation was constantly oozing. The same is true of "Human Chains": a bag of coal can also enter the poem, accepting the patience and ceaseless words of the poet. This naturally attracted some criticism. Some mainstream book review newspapers in the United States believe that perhaps people pay too much attention to Heaney's "poems lost in the countryside", and critics believe that Heaney is increasingly "pulling the old excavators of British romantic poets such as Wordsworth into the contemporary world, with the soil of his predecessors embedded in his fingernails". Susan sontag, an American scholar, once commented that Ireland in Sydney is "like Disneyland in Dublin". Some British book critics also pointed out that Sydney in the new poetry collection is like "writing an obituary for yourself".
Heaney laughed when he heard this. He is the first Irish poet to win the Nobel Prize after Ye Zhi. After entering the age of 70, Ye Zhi began to write the last poem; Heaney admits that his 12 poetry collection "Human Chains" is indeed shrouded in emptiness when facing the ultimate fate of mankind. The poet said that this terrible fog runs through his whole writing process. There is a poem in the collection of poems, "The door is open, but the room is dark", which was dedicated by Sydney to the late friend and Celtic folk musician David Harmon.
For some criticisms, Heaney read another subtle meaning: criticizing his "pastoral poetry" and ignoring reality. He admits that modern poetry is more social realism than in the past, but he says he misses the traditional writing style a little: "James Joyce said,' The right order, the right words.' "
Sydney will use the whole poem to describe the lack of sunshine in the yard with the image of "Mary Menstruation" baking bread on the farm. Mary Menstruation's nails are dyed white by flour. But he also wrote poems with political metaphors. On the occasion of commemorating the 50th anniversary of Sinn Fein's Easter Uprising in Northern Ireland in 19 17, Heaney published Requiem for Peninsula Revolutionaries, nominally "Commemorating 1798 Irish Uprising". At that time, in the 1960s, at the end of the fiercest conflict between the peace forces in Northern Ireland and the unionists, Sydney actually recited this poem in front of a Protestant audience. Sydney remembers that the audience was silent at that time. His attitude is: "You don't need to love it, you just need to allow it to exist."
Brilliant period
1969, the publication of the second book of poetry, The Gate of Darkness, marked that the poet began to dig deep into the dark soil of Irish national history. 1966- 1972, Sydney was a lecturer in modern literature at her alma mater and experienced the riots caused by the demonstrations held by Catholics in Northern Ireland for civil rights. From 65438 to 0972, due to severe political pressure from Northern Ireland, Sydney and his family moved to Dublin, Ireland, where they mainly engaged in teaching and writing poetry and poetry criticism, hoping to become professional writers. The published collection of poetry "Winter is here" is the result of the poet's search for images and symbols that can show the country's predicament according to the religious and political conflicts in Ireland. From 65438 to 0974, he became a visiting scholar at Berkeley University, which was a turning point in his poetry creation. Since 1980s, he has been an honorary professor at Oxford University in England and Harvard University in the United States.
The peak of Heaney's creation was in1970s and1980s, which were also the bloodiest years of Northern Ireland conflict. During this period, he published important poems, including Northern China (1975), Field Work (1979), Bitter Island (1984) and Hawthorn Lantern (1987). Heaney once said, "Poets basically answer and respond to the world." But he also believes that "the first duty of a poet is to allow poetry to happen again and let poetry continue."
old age
After peace was achieved in Northern Ireland, Heaney said, "I will never forget the feeling when I heard the ceasefire was announced: it was like the dark roof was opened and the bright sunshine came in." 1995, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature on the grounds that his works are full of lyrical beauty and profound ethics, revealing the miracles of daily life and real history ("Seamushanywork of LyricalbautyandethicalDepth, among which XalteryDaymiracle and Living Past"). 20 13 On August 30th, seamus heaney died at the age of 74.
Chronology of works
Writing characteristics
Heaney's poems are simple and natural, with the blood of ancestors and the fragrance of the land. They inherit the excellent tradition of Irish literature and are good at emotional pastoral lyrics. For example, at the beginning of Plum Picking, the poet explained the season and environment of plum picking: "end of August", "rainstorm" and "scorching sun". This is the time when blackberries are ripe and delicious. Then, the poet unfolded the story and vividly described the ripe and delicious scene of blackberry at one point from the aspects of shape, color, taste and state. Blackberry "was just a small, glittering purple at first" and "mingled with red flowers and green leaves", and it was a "hard little pimple", which was unremarkable. But the taste of "tasting the first grain" is so "delicious" and so tempting. Then, the author uses a unique metaphor-the ripe blackberries everywhere "seem to precipitate wine: all the mellow beauty of summer", which further strengthens and highlights this refreshing beauty and feeling on the surface.
Heaney's poems also have a strong national flavor and rich philosophy of daily life. He also made in-depth research and introduction on the epics of ancient Greece and Britain, thus broadening the expression field of modern poetry. He calmly explored and tasted the Irish national spirit with the eyes of modern civilization. Although he has an academic background, he has no academic narcissism. In his 12 collection of poems, he described the rural life in Ireland, praised the land, nature and ancient morality, thought about the complicated historical and political conflicts in Ireland, and tried to awaken people's understanding of tolerance and reconciliation in his works. Like Ye Zhi, his predecessor as an Irish poet, Sydney's name is inseparable from his native Ireland, and like Ye Zhi, his simple and profound poems can reach people in different countries and times.
achievement
Achievement of works
In his early masterpiece Death of a Naturalist, seamus recalled his lost childhood and expressed his nostalgia for his hometown. In the poem Digging the Ground, he hopes that he can write a poem with the perseverance and skill of his fathers digging the ground: "Between my fingers and thumb, a thick pen lies comfortably like a gun." 1995, Seymour won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The evaluation of the organizing Committee is: "His poems are lyrical and ethical, which sublimate miracles and living past events in daily life." According to statistics, in 2007, the sales of seamus's poems in the British book market accounted for 1/3 of the total sales of all living British poets at that time.
school achievement
Irish poetry once again won this honor. The Eliot Prize, the most important prize in the field of poetry, was announced. Seamus heaney won the Eliot Prize in 2006 for his 2005 poetry collection "The Past Block". Sydney's award was not all smooth sailing. Another strong opponent is also an Irish poet, paul meagher, a professor of poetry at Oxford University. However, in the end, Sydney won a prize of 1 10,000 pounds, and T. S. Eliot's wife Valerie Eliot personally presented the prize.
Critics generally believe that the newly published Return of Hometown is full of darkness, prophecy and danger, although it revolves around the daily life in the London Underground. His poems depict a world where conflicts are inevitable and wars are everywhere. Sinoe Bryan, president of the Eliot Prize, spoke highly of Heaney's works, calling them "delightful works".
Heaney himself did not attend the award ceremony, but he said that he felt very honored after learning the news of the award, not only because of T·S· Eliot's name, but also because of his respect for previous winners and other candidates of that year. Since the establishment of 1993, the Eliot Prize has become an important agenda in the field of literature, especially poetry. Previous winners include AliceOswald, TedHughes and LesMurray. It's not surprising that Sydney won the prize in China. Wang Jiaxin, a poet, said that when Sydney won the Nobel Prize in Literature, he used Sydney's poems to express "like digging potatoes out of the ground when it is mature". He said that Heini is not only a great poet recognized internationally, but also a poet generally recognized, respected and concerned by domestic poetry circles. According to him, Sydney was born on the same day that Ye Zhi died, and is also recognized as the most important Irish poet after Ye Zhi. He is the son of a farmer, and his works always pay attention to the excavation of life experience.
Social assessment
Former US President Bill Clinton is a big fan of Heaney, and the title of his memoir Between Hope and History is taken from Heaney's play The Treatment of Troy. Clinton commented on the poet: "It is a gift from the Irish people and the world, and it is a comfort to me when I am in trouble." It is said that the name of Clinton's Labrador is "seamus".
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 Meagher paul meagher, a Pulitzer Prize winner and 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 such fame as Sydney, and he 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, AlAlvarez, a poet and poetry critic, wrote in an article published in the New York Book Review: "If Sidney represents the highest achievement in writing poetry, then the whole modern poetry of anxiety and exploration 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 closed darkness only mistook illness for inspiration. "