Pagine1939–2013 · Castledawson, County Derry · also known as Heaney
Seamus Heaney grew up on a farm in County Derry and wrote poems of the land, memory and the Troubles in Northern Ireland, beginning with Death of a Naturalist (1966), whose poem “Digging” compares his pen to his father’s spade. North (1975) and his bestselling translation of Beowulf (1999) followed. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. His last words, texted to his wife, were “Noli timere” — “Don’t be afraid.”
Begin with Death of a Naturalist.
Part of our Irish Classics reading list — print it, email it to yourself or share it.
Jonathan Swift · Oscar Wilde · Bram Stoker · W. B. Yeats · George Bernard Shaw · James Joyce · Samuel Beckett
Seamus Heaney grew up on a farm in County Derry and wrote poems of the land, memory and the Troubles in Northern Ireland, beginning with Death of a Naturalist (1966), whose poem “Digging” compares his pen to his father’s spade. North (1975) and his bestselling translation of Beowulf (1999) followed.
Death of a Naturalist is usually considered Seamus Heaney’s best-known work, followed by North, Beowulf (translation).
Most readers start with Death of a Naturalist.
Both refer to the same writer.
Seamus Heaney’s books are still under copyright, so they are not free to download, but many can be borrowed free from your public library or Open Library — we link to them below.