- Paperback: 128 pages
- Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux; Reprint edition (April 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0374523894
- ISBN-13: 978-0374523893
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,430,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Seeing Things
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This collection of Seamus Heaney's work, especially in the vivid and surprising twelve-line poems entitled "Squarings", shows he is ready to re-imagine experience and "to credit marvels". The title poem, "Seeing Things", is typical of the whole book. It begins with memories of an actual event, then moves towards the visionary while never relinquishing its feel for the textures and sensations of the world. Translations of Virgil and Homer provide a prelude and a coda where motifs implicit in the earlier lyrics are given direct expression in extended narratives. Journeys to underworlds and otherworlds correspond to the journeys made by poetic language itself. From the author of "The Haw Lantern", "Wintering Out", "Station Island" and "North".
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Seamus Heaney was born in County Derry in Northern Ireland. Death of a Naturalist, his first collection of poems, appeared in 1966 and since then he has published poetry, criticism and translations - including Beowulf (1999) - which have established him as one of the leading poets now at work. In 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. District and Circle was awarded the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2006. Stepping Stones, a book of interviews conducted by Dennis O'Driscoll, appeared in 2008. In 2009 he received the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Human Chain was awarded the 2010 Forward Prize for Best Collection.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I had to struggle a bit with the language, being not native English speaking, but I relished the challenge and was thoroughly rewarded for my efforts.
It is a collection that speaks profoundly about how the present, everyday moments link to one another and constitute the basis for our inner history.
You can feel that Heaney is also reflecting about the passing of time, of memory and of fading vitality, when one has to confront himself with his past and try to explicate the meaning of all those, at that time, meaningless moments and how, those same moments, retrospectively acquire so much meaning.
Collection of poems can be read intermittently, but do not let too much time pass from reading one poem to the next, because they are discoursing with one another, which enriches still the depth of this book.
It is a collection that speaks profoundly about how the present, everyday moments link to one another and constitute the basis for our inner history.
You can feel that Heaney is also reflecting about the passing of time, of memory and of fading vitality, when one has to confront himself with his past and try to explicate the meaning of all those, at that time, meaningless moments and how, those same moments, retrospectively acquire so much meaning.
Collection of poems can be read intermittently, but do not let too much time pass from reading one poem to the next, because they are discoursing with one another, which enriches still the depth of this book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
A classic, deserving of the Nobel Prize!
4 Oct 2000
Format:Paperback
Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, in large part because of this book. The poetry isn't archaic or highbrow or needing 80 pages of notes to understand. It's written comfortably and easily, about simple things from his childhood and life.
I bought this to take on a trip to Ireland, and it was fantastic reading it while walking the green meadows and rocky coastline. It breathes Irish air. If you have a love for the misty grasses, or simply enjoy rural, quiet life, read through these poems.
The poems talk of birth, and love, and death, of heather bells and boats in docks. Give them a try, and be swept away in their gentle language.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A formidable achievement
25 July 2002
Format:Paperback
Perhaps this book represents Heaney's finest poetry since 'Field Work.' It contains the magnificent sequence 'Squarings,' and a continuation of his Glanmore sonnets. The craftsmanship impeccable, the voice down-to-earth.
We remember especially his sonnet on Lent in which the poet deals with 'A fasted will marauding through the body,' and the poem "Wheels within Wheels," where a child spins the pedals of an inverted bicycle and notes "The way the space between the hub and rim / Hummed with transparency." Note the unobtrusive assonances, & the exact right words.
In one of the twelve-line poems of 'Squarings', Heaney counsels himself and other poets: 'Do not waver / Into language. Do not waver in it.' In this sequence, it is Heaney's happy accomplishment to have heeded that counsel in an exemplary fashion. Driving through an avenue or tunnel of trees, arching over a quarter-mile stretch of country road, Heaney sees the trees as 'Calligraphic shocks / Bushed and tufted in prevailing winds.' Could Thomas Hardy or Wallace Stevens have done as well?
Talking about it isn't good enough,
But quoting from it at least demonstrates
The virtue of an art that knows its mind.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
In Honor Of St Patrick's Day...
19 Mar 2002
Format:Paperback
i thought i'd read a irish writer. i couldn't think of a better choice than heaney. the poems here are subtle, but infinitely brilliant. i love the way he uses mythology in some of the pieces, taking references from dante and homer. he draws from his family life, childhood, and his lifelong experiences to create poems that are wondrous in form and content.
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