An afternoon with Seamus Heaney

Recorded in 1988, this interview with Seamus Heaney touches on his childhood in rural Ireland near Slieve Gallion, the politics of Northern Ireland, his poetic craft and the natural world's influence on his work. Heaney sits onstage with Georgetown University's George O’Brien in front of an audience of students at Howard Community College in Maryland. With his arm slung over the back of the chair, Heaney talks, reads, recites, and laughs. His work is grounded in rural Ireland's physical world, he says: "So the places and the people that are there, there are also places and presences that allowed that richness, that generated that thing in the language itself, to begin with. There was a kind of hedonistic, self-indulgent quality to writing about all that too." He reads "Alphabets" and "From the Republic of Conscience", "A Peacock's Feather", and sonnets from "Clearances". He also recites "Digging". This video broadcast with permission from the Heaney family estate and Faber & Faber Ltd. For more information about HoCoPoLitSo, to obtain a full transcript, or to support live or taped literary programming, visit www.hocopolitso.org

[@cherylraywood6723]

wow!
heaney's reciting his gorgeous poems to an appreciative student audience is pure gold!
thank you

[@暗示夢故事]

happy birthday🎂Prof. Seamus Heaney

[@dhss333]

Greatest Irish poet ever.

[@eunicelynch3511]

Ahh Seamus what you do with the English language...it's a joy to hear...all the while I worked in Dublin I took such pleasure in hearing my own language spoken with such colour and wit..and the usage of old expressions we in England have now put out to grass...what will we do without you...read your seeing and hearing to our children..that they may be Rich in inner wealth...

[@markhooper4532]

Winnie Wallace...He has those wonderful smiling Irish eyes. Joyful to listen to also.

[@hocopolitso]

yes, he did have a twinkle in his eye, didn't he? He was a joy.

[@TimGreig]

@40:50 "Some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses"

[@errolmichaelphillips7763]

"The peacock's feather"