Join Faber Members for 10% off your first order.
Summary
The poems in Seamus Heaney’s collection The Spirit Level keep discovering the possibilities of ‘a new beginning’ in all kinds of subjects and circumstances. What is at stake, in poem after poem, is the chance of buoyancy and balance, physical, spiritual and political. Private memories, classical scenes, humble domestic objects – a whitewash brush, a sofa, a swing – are endowed with talismanic significance, while friends and relatives are invoked for their promise and steadfastness. Throughout the collection, Heaney addresses his concerns, which inevitably include the political situation in his native Northern Ireland, in a poetry that never ceases to be fluid, alert and completely truthful.
SeamusHeaney
Seamus Heaney 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…
Read MoreSeamusHeaney
More books by Seamus Heaney
Our Poem of the Week is ‘Digging’ by Seamus Heaney, from the iconic Irish poet’s classic first collection, Death of …
Faber is delighted to announce the publication of The Poems of Seamus Heaney, edited by Rosie Lavan and Bernard O'Donoghue …
Our Poem of the Week is ‘Punishment’ from North, Seamus Heaney’s account of the people, history and landscape of Ireland.
Our Poem of the Week is ‘Digging’ by Seamus Heaney, from the iconic Irish poet’s classic first collection, Death of …
Our Poem of the Week is ‘Anahorish’ from Wintering Out, Seamus Heaney’s third collection of poetry.
This week, our Poem of the Week is Seamus Heaney's 'Song', from his 1979 collection, Field Work.
Looking for a book to curl up with by the fire? We asked Faber staff to tell us which books …
How do you write a city that hasn’t decided what it’s going to be next? In the latest of our …
Authors’ letters provide fascinating insights into the personalities and social context behind some of the greatest works of our time.
We asked Faber Members to send in their first encounters with the writing of Seamus Heaney and were thrilled with …
To mark the tenth anniversary of Seamus Heaney’s death and to celebrate his extraordinary legacy, we share a poem from …
As the summer holidays approach, we’re beginning to think about which books to pack for our holiday reading. The Faber …
Are you planning a summer getaway? Or not going away and looking for a bit of escapism? Browse our list …
For what would have been Seamus Heaney’s 83rd birthday, we asked our Faber colleagues to share their first or favourite …
Director Adam Low shares his diary for his BBC documentary 'Seamus Heaney and the Music of What Happens'
Faber is very pleased to announce the publication of a new work by Seamus Heaney, a verse translation of Aeneid: Book …