Field work

Field work

Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013

Book - 1979

Collection centers on a sonnet sequence set in Glanmore, where the poet lived for four years after having left the turbulence of Belfast in 1972. Also includes love poems and elegies--in memory of Francis Ledwidge, Robert Lowell, and Sean O'Riada, among others--as well as a translation of 'Cantos XXXII' and XXXIII' from Dante's 'Inferno'."--Front flap, dust jacket.

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Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor 821.914/Heaney Due Feb 17, 2025
Subjects
Heaney, Seamus, > 1939-2013.
1900-1999
Irish poetry > Male authors > 20th century.
Ireland > Poetry.
Northern Ireland > Poetry.
Ireland.
Northern Ireland.
Poetry.
Genres
Poetry
Published
New York, New York : Farrar, Straus, Giroux 1979.
Language
English
Main Author
Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013 (author)
Item Description
Issued in dust jacket.
"First published in 1979 by Faber and Faber Limited"--Verso, title page.
"First American printing, 1979"--title verso.
"Copyright © 1976, 1979 by Seamus Heaney. ... Printed in the United States of America."--Verso, title page.
"The quotation from Dante, 'Purgatorio', used in 'The strand at Lough Beg', is taken from the Penguin translation by Dorothy L. Sayers (1955). 'Elegy' and 'Leavings' appeared in a limited edition from Deerfield Press. 'Glanmore sonnets' were published by Charles Seluzicki under the title 'Hedge school' (Janus Press)."--Page 9.
Physical Description
65 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography
"Notes"--Pages 65-[66]
ISBN
9780374154820
9780374516208
Place of Publication
United States -- New York (State) -- New York.
  • Oysters
  • Triptych. I. After a killing ; II. Sibyl ; III. At the water's edge
  • The Toome road
  • A drink of water
  • The strand at Lough Beg
  • A postcard from North Antrim
  • Casualty
  • The badgers
  • The singer's house
  • The guttural muse
  • In memoriam Sean O'Riada
  • Elegy
  • Glanmore sonnets
  • September song
  • An afterwards
  • High summer
  • The otter
  • The skunk
  • Homecomings
  • A dream of jealousy
  • Polder
  • Field works
  • Song
  • Leavings
  • The harvest bow
  • In memoriam Francis Ledwidge
  • Ugolino.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Field Work is Seamus Heaney's fifth book of poems, and his first to be published in this country. His strong and beautiful verse already has a following on American campuses, and this fine new book will undoubtedly extend the range of his influence. His Ireland is an ""island. . . full of comfortless voices""; he lived in Belfast for many years, as the elegies for the war dead (""Casualty,"" ""A Postcard from North Antrim,"" etc.) and other troubled poems attest. ""Ugolino,"" the translation of a passage from The Divine Comedy, also concerns war and vengeance, and injustice: ""For the sins/ of Ugolino, who betrayed your forts,/ Should never have been visited on his sons."" The delicate ""Elegy"" is a memory of Robert Lowell's last days. But Heaney's Ireland is also quotidian: ""She came every morning to draw water/ Like an old bat staggering up the field:/ The pump's whooping cough, the bucket's clatter/ And slow diminuendo as it filled,/ Announced her."" Ten ""Glanmore Sonnets,"" which occupy a central place in the book, commemorate an easing in the poet's life, a time when ""Vowels ploughed into other: opened ground""; and this is the ""field work"" of the title poem as well. Looking at an ugly badger, Heaney asks: ""How perilous is it to choose/ not to love the life we're shown?"" Waist-deep in language, he does. A fine introduction to a staunch, resonant spirit. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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