Seamus Heaney wrote poetry that was pleasing to the ear. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1995.
Heaney who was Irish, grew up in County Derry, and lived for many years in Dublin. ‘Death of a Naturalist’ and ‘Door into the Dark’, are his verse collections of great beauty.
Heaney was often termed as a regional poet. ‘New Selected Poems, 1966-1987’, published in 1990 was a collection of poems that differed radically from his early verse.
His collection ‘Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996’ was widely praised’. ‘District and Circle’, won the T.S. Eliot Prize, the most prestigious poetry award in the UK. Heaney was known for the translation of the epic Anglo-Saxon poem ‘Beowulf’, in 2000. He wrote 20 volumes of poetry and criticism, and edited several anthologies.
Seamus Heaney passed away on 30th August, 2013. His body is buried at the cemetery of St. Mary’s Church, Bellaghy in Northern Ireland.