The title poem in Heaney’s debut poetry collection Death of a Naturalist, published in 1966, ‘Death of a Naturalist’ is a deceptively simple poem about how the fascination and curiosity we feel in early childhood gives way to fear and disgust when we reach adolescence. You can read ‘Death of […]
The greatest poems by Seamus Heaney selected by Dr Oliver Tearle Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) was one of the greatest and most popular English-language poets of the late twentieth century, and he continued to write into the current century. He was also the best-loved of the group of Irish poets who […]
A reading of a classic Heaney poem ‘Digging’ appeared in Seamus Heaney’s first collection, Death of a Naturalist, in 1966. Like a number of the sonnets by Tony Harrison – who was born two years before Heaney – ‘Digging’ is about a poet-son’s relationship with his father and the sense […]