"This sparklingly rich collection offers many inviting pathways into Seamus Heaney’s late work, at once pointing up its cohesiveness and variousness. Heaney’s turn to the aerial in his final collections is shown to go hand in hand with a renewed interest in the literary and the everyday, the numinous and the mundane. The incisive and illuminating essays in this volume prove that Heaney’s poetry, in Yeatsian manner, operated at the highest pitch to the very end, ever-gaining in depth, plangency, and philosophical reach. Heaney emerges here as one of the supreme practitioners of late style of the twenty-first century." —Anne Fogarty, Professor of James Joyce Studies, University College Dublin
"The scope and remit of 'The Soul Exceeds Its Circumstances' position it to make a welcome and timely contribution to scholarship on Seamus Heaney, whose death in 2013 brought to an end over five decades of creative output. Eugene O'Brien's decision to devote a collection of essays to the later poetry thus promises to fill a gap in 'Heaney Studies,' extending coverage and suggesting some new directions in critical methodology." —Jason David Hall, University of Exeter
“The later poetry of Seamus Heaney has been less widely read and valued than his earlier work. In part, that is understandable. His early poems stunned and delighted and challenged readers of contemporary poetry, establishing Heaney as a poet of astonishing grace, originality, and depth. Now Eugene O’Brien has gathered a remarkable array of critics to reconsider and celebrate the later poems, which demand a great deal of readers. I was moved by these essays and driven back to the poems themselves. There is a whole world to open here, and these writers have begun the task of revelation. This is a hugely important work, and it should draw the attention of readers who care about modern and contemporary poetry.” —Jay Parini, author of New and Collected Poems, 1975–2015
“In this collection of essays, academics from both sides of the Atlantic examine Heaney’s later poetic works, appropriately examining themes of survival and death, among others.” —Books Ireland
“The essays provide detailed readings of Heaney’s later poetry in order to illustrate how his work progressed and in what directions it developed . . . Certainly Heaney’s later work is in need of sustained critical investigation, and this book serves as an important first step toward that goal.” —Choice
The later poetry of Seamus Heaney has been less widely read and valued than his earlier work. In part, that is understandable. His early poems stunned and delighted and challenged readers of contemporary poetry, establishing Heaney as a poet of astonishing grace, originality, and depth. Now Eugene O’Brien has gathered a remarkable array of critics to reconsider and celebrate the later poems, which demand a great deal of readers. I was moved by these essays and driven back to the poems themselves. There is a whole world to open here, and these writers have begun the task of revelation. This is a hugely important work, and it should draw the attention of readers who care about modern and contemporary poetry.
"The scope and remit of 'The Soul Exceeds Its Circumstances' position it to make a welcome and timely contribution to scholarship on Seamus Heaney, whose death in 2013 brought to an end over five decades of creative output. Eugene O'Brien's decision to devote a collection of essays to the later poetry thus promises to fill a gap in 'Heaney Studies,' extending coverage and suggesting some new directions in critical methodology."
In this collection of essays, academics from both sides of the Atlantic examine Heaney’s later poetic works, appropriately examining themes of survival and death, among others.
"This sparklingly rich collection offers many inviting pathways into Seamus Heaney’s late work, at once pointing up its cohesiveness and variousness. Heaney’s turn to the aerial in his final collections is shown to go hand in hand with a renewed interest in the literary and the everyday, the numinous and the mundane. The incisive and illuminating essays in this volume prove that Heaney’s poetry, in Yeatsian manner, operated at the highest pitch to the very end, ever-gaining in depth, plangency, and philosophical reach. Heaney emerges here as one of the supreme practitioners of late style of the twenty-first century."
The essays provide detailed readings of Heaney’s later poetry in order to illustrate how his work progressed and in what directions it developed . . . Certainly Heaney’s later work is in need of sustained critical investigation, and this book serves as an important first step toward that goal.