Seamus Heaney- Quotes- Critical.

Heaney- poems changing world.

"I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world."

Heaney on what poems are good for-

"They keep colours new. They rinse things..."

Heaney, poetry and silence.

"Poetry is the hub of silence."

Professor John Kelly, Heaney and childhood.

"Heaney came to see childhood in particular as a vital element in the poet's resources".

Heaney on why "Door into the Dark" title- gestured towards-

"An idea of poetry as a point of entry into the buried life of the feelings or as a point of access for it".

Heaney on intensity of violence-

"It would be impossible to encompass the perspectives of a humane reason and at the same time to grant the religious intensity of the violence its deplorable authenticity and complexity".

Andrew Murphy- Heaney and conflicting demands-

"The conflicting demands of art and life...of song and suffering."

Andrew Murphy- what defines Heaney's career?

"Heaney's career has been characterized by a continual negotiation between the various responsibilities of the poet".

Andrew Murphy, Heaney confronting issues-

"Heaney found himself expected- and expecting himself- to address that crisis in his poetry".

Jack Kroll, Heaney and the senses.

"Makes you see, hear, smell, taste this life."

Morrison, Heaney as spokesman.

"He has taken on the mantle of public spokesman, someone looked to for comment and guidance."

Heaney resenting politicised poetry, Morrison.

"Yet he has also shown signs of deeply resenting this role, defending the right of poets to be private and apolitical".

Helen Vendler, Heaney is?

"A poet of the in-between."

John Taylor, childhood and Heaney-

"Notably attempts, as an aging man, to re-experience childhood and early-adulthood perceptions in all their sensate fullness."

Ciaran Carson- Heaney is-

"The laureate of violence- a mythmaker, and anthropologist of ritual killing."

Heaney, killing-

"When people are killing each other round about you, you feel obligated to pay attention".

Heaney's final words to wife-

"Noli timere"- "Do not be afraid."

Robert Lowell, Heaney is-

"The most important Irish poet since Yeats".

Heaney's epitaph-

"Walk on air against your better judgement."

Colm Toibin- Heaney's escapism-

"In a time of burnings and bombings Heaney used poetry to offer an alternative world."

Example of how widely read Heaney's work was in UK-

At one time, according to the BBC, his poetry books made up two-thirds of the sales of living poets in the UK.

Heaney on importance of early life-

"I learned that my local County Derry experience, which I had considered archaic and irrelevant to 'the modern world', was to be trusted. They taught me that trust and helped me to articulate it."

Shaun O'Connell, Heaney's duality thanks to-

"The backwash of ironies which make him as bleak as he is bright."

Colm Toibin, Heaney's ambiguity-

"His refusal to sum up or offer meaning is part of his tact."

W.S. Di Piero, Heaney's language is-

"At once a rhetorical weapon and nutriment of spirit."