Irish poet of soil, strife dies

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney, a widely celebrated Irish poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, died at a hospital in Dublin yesterday after a short illness, according to a statement issued on behalf of his family. He was 74.
Heaney, who was born in Northern Ireland but moved to Dublin in his later years, is recognized as one of the major poets of the 20th century. His fellow poet Robert Lowell described Heaney as the “most important Irish poet since Yeats.”
In a statement, Faber & Faber, which published his work for nearly 50 years, called him “one of the world's greatest writers. His impact on literary culture is immeasurable.”
Born April 13, 1939, on a farm in County Derry, Heaney gained prominence in the 1960s after his debut with the “Death of a Naturalist.” His volumes of poetry include “The Spirit Level,” “District and Circle” and “Bog Poems.”
Under constant pressure to write favorably about the goals of his fellow Catholics, many of whom wanted a Northern Ireland free of British control, his work often dwelt on the sectarian violence in the British province of Ulster.
But he saw both sides of the conflict and never wrote polemics to support the violent campaign of the Irish Republican Army. He resented and attacked British oppression, but admired much in British culture and English literature. He was rare among modern poets in that not only the vast majority of critics and academics praised him, but millions of readers also bought him. By some estimates he was the best-read living poet in the world at in recent decades.
He is survived by his wife, Marie, and his children, Christopher, Michael and Catherine Ann.