Seamus Heaney

Acknowledgements

KATHY SHOEMAKER

Reference Coordinator, Research Services

Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library

Emory University, Atlanta, GA

KELLY DUQUETTE

PhD Candidate, Emory Department of English

Dean’s Teaching Fellow, Center for Faculty Development and Excellence

MARRY ELLEN BUDNEY

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

CHAPTER 1 A Man of Principle

Seamus Heaney was born and spent his childhood in a small Mossbaun farmhouse, with beech trees all around and hedges between the fields, a small bog nearby. This he recognized “as forever part of his landscape”,¹ engaging his poetic imagination. He never had any “hesitation in giving to humble everyday parochial farm activities the dignity they deserve”.² This humility itself dignified Heaney’s entire life. Then there is his remarkable family life: “a cattle-dealing father, a much loved mother and aunt, presiding jointly over the domestic world.”³ This “instinctive natural affection in parents towards their children” was passed down by Heaney to his own children, and to his wife, Marie. It endorsed the effect of habit. It was wonderfully strong towards his brothers. The death by accident of his three and a half year-old brother Christopher haunted Heaney’s memory and made him pen down later:⁴

…

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,

He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.

No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four foot box, a foot for every year.