The Poems of Seamus Heaney

This is the long-awaited, definitive edition of Seamus Heaney's poetry. It encompasses all the poems Heaney published in his lifetime as well as the small number that appeared after his death: twelve single volumes, from Death of a Naturalist (1966) to Human Chain (2010), and those poems published in pamphlets, journals and magazines or with limited circulation. In addition, the book includes a selection of unpublished material chosen by the poet's family.

It is a body of work that, in its entirety, resounds with the 'lyrical beauty and ethical depth' cited by the Nobel committee: poems 'which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.'

Critical introductions to each collection and notes that illuminate the history and development of the poems make this the essential volume for admirers of Heaney's work.

About the Author

Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) 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. His translation of Virgil's Aeneid Book VI was published posthumously in 2016 to critical acclaim, followed in 2018 by 100 Poems, a selection of poems from his entire career, chosen by his family.

About the Editors

Bernard O'Donoghue was born in Cullen, Co Cork in 1945. He is an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, where he taught Medieval English and Modern Irish Poetry. He has published seven collections of poetry, including Gunpowder, winner of the 1995 Whitbread Prize for Poetry, and The Seasons of Cullen Church, shortlisted for the 2016 T.S. Eliot Prize. His Selected Poems was published by Faber in 2008.

Rosie Lavan is an assistant professor in the School of English at Trinity, where she teaches poetry and modern Irish and British literature. She is the author of Seamus Heaney and Society (2020), and she worked with Bernard O’Donoghue on the new edition of The Poems of Seamus Heaney, for Faber and Faber. Before her academic career she worked as a journalist in London.

Matthew Hollis was born in Norwich, UK, in 1971. Ground Water (Bloodaxe Books, 2004) was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Whitbread Prize for Poetry. Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas (Faber & Faber, 2011; W.W. Norton, 2012) won the Costa Biography Award and the H.W. Fisher Biography Prize. The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem (Faber and Norton, 2022) was a book of the year in the Financial Times, New Statesman and Sunday Times.