Human Chain
Seamus Heaney
2010 • Faber & Faber
Interviewer: Do you ever feel confined by the personal mythologies that take over a life? […]
Heaney: Well, I’d go back to the image of the concentric ripples. They are always on the move and invisible to themselves. It’s the person looking at the pool from the bank who sees the process as a pattern. The public’s perception is just that, and you can never share it, even if you wanted to. And your own perception of yourself is always going to be very different. Imagine if you were an oyster. The public would see you as an infrangible nut, a kind of sea-raid shelter, but you would feel yourself all mother-of-pearly inwardness and vulnerability.
— Seamus Heaney
Human Chain
Seamus Heaney
2010 • Faber & Faber
Interviewer: Do you ever feel confined by the personal mythologies that take over a life? […]
Heaney: Well, I’d go back to the image of the concentric ripples. They are always on the move and invisible to themselves. It’s the person looking at the pool from the bank who sees the process as a pattern. The public’s perception is just that, and you can never share it, even if you wanted to. And your own perception of yourself is always going to be very different. Imagine if you were an oyster. The public would see you as an infrangible nut, a kind of sea-raid shelter, but you would feel yourself all mother-of-pearly inwardness and vulnerability.
— Seamus Heaney
Description
Human Chain is Seamus Heaney’s twelfth and final poetry collection. His career spans five decades, with his first major work Death of a Naturalist published in 1966, and includes four collections of prose, two plays, and acclaimed translations of Beowulf and The Aeneid, amongst other translated works. During his lifetime he received many honours and international accolades, including the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, and his work has been translated into over 25 languages. Seamus Heaney passed away on 30th August 2013.
Excerpts
Interviews
- The Paris Review: 'The Art of Poetry No. 75'
- Brick Mag: An Interview with Seamus Heaney
- The Guardian: 'Seamus Heaney - A Life of Rhyme'
- The Telegraph: Interview with Seamus Heaney
Prizes & Awards
Reviews
- Paddy Keogh, RTÉ
- Dave Lordan, The Stinging Fly
- Ross Moore, Culture Northern Ireland
- Colm Tóibín, The Guardian
- Kate Kellaway, The Observer
- Eamon Grennan, The Irish Times
- Luke Smith, The Oxonian
- Thomas McCarthy, The Irish Examiner
Audio
- The Guardian Books Podcast: Seamus Heaney reads from Human Chain
- Poetry Foundation: Seamus Heaney - Poetry Lectures
- RTÉ: Archive of Seamus Heaney Broadcasts
- BBC: Desert Island Discs - Seamus Heaney
Video
- PBS Newshour: In 'Human Chain,' Nobel-Winning Poet Seamus Heaney Digs Into the Past
- Emory University: Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney gives a Poetry Reading at Emory University
- Griffin Poetry Prize: Poet Robin Robertson reads from Human Chain, by Seamus heaney
- RTÉ: Seamus Heaney Remembered
Resources For Readers
- The New York Review of Books: 'Reading Seamus Heaney'
- The Poetry Archive: Seamus Heaney Biography
- The Nobel Prize: Seamus Heaney Biography
- The Guardian: Writers' Rooms - Seamus Heaney
- The Irish Times: 'Obituary - Heaney "the Most Important Irish Poet Since Yeats"'
- Google Scholar References
- JSTOR References