Crediting Poetry

The Nobel Lecture

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Poetry History & Criticism
Cover of the book Crediting Poetry by Seamus Heaney, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Seamus Heaney ISBN: 9781466855663
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: January 13, 2014
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Language: English
Author: Seamus Heaney
ISBN: 9781466855663
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: January 13, 2014
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English

Seamus Heaney's Nobel Lecture, captured here in Crediting Poetry, is a powerful defense of poetry as "the ship and the anchor" of our spirit within an ocean of violent, divisive politics and "world-sorrow." Beginning with the "creaturely existence" of his childhood in a thatched farmstead in rural County Derry, Heaney traces his path in "the wideness of language." It is a way forged by listening: to the "burbles and squeaks" of BBC and Radio Eireann from a wireless speaker, to the triple-rhyme in a line of Yeats', but also to the sound of gunfire in Ulster and the keening desolation of all the "wounded spots on the face of the earth." Out of all these sounds Heaney discovers the necessity of poetic order--"an order where we can at last grow up to that which we stored up as we grew."
It is poetry's ability to convey the forces of the marvelous and the murderous together, Heaney writes, that gives it "at once a buoyancy and a holding," and persuades us of its "truth to life." Heaney's lecture not only finds a way of crediting poetry "without anxiety or apology," but it persuades us, eloquently and gracefully, of the "rightness" and "thereness" of our veritable human being.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Seamus Heaney's Nobel Lecture, captured here in Crediting Poetry, is a powerful defense of poetry as "the ship and the anchor" of our spirit within an ocean of violent, divisive politics and "world-sorrow." Beginning with the "creaturely existence" of his childhood in a thatched farmstead in rural County Derry, Heaney traces his path in "the wideness of language." It is a way forged by listening: to the "burbles and squeaks" of BBC and Radio Eireann from a wireless speaker, to the triple-rhyme in a line of Yeats', but also to the sound of gunfire in Ulster and the keening desolation of all the "wounded spots on the face of the earth." Out of all these sounds Heaney discovers the necessity of poetic order--"an order where we can at last grow up to that which we stored up as we grew."
It is poetry's ability to convey the forces of the marvelous and the murderous together, Heaney writes, that gives it "at once a buoyancy and a holding," and persuades us of its "truth to life." Heaney's lecture not only finds a way of crediting poetry "without anxiety or apology," but it persuades us, eloquently and gracefully, of the "rightness" and "thereness" of our veritable human being.

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book Distant Mandate by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book 100 Days by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book The Underdogs by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book Plowing the Dark by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book Sallies, Romps, Portraits, and Send-Offs by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book Talking to My Daughter About the Economy by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book Hogs Wild by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book Ultimate Fitness by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book Listen, Little Man! by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book Love Monster and the Scary Something by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book Temporary Stories by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book Drinking the Rain by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book Tree of Smoke by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book Same Life by Seamus Heaney
Cover of the book Please, Papa by Seamus Heaney
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy