SEAMUS HEANEY’S EARLY WORK SEAMUS HEANEY’S EARLY WORK POETIC RESPONSIBILITY AND THE TROUBLES Daniel Xerri !"#$%&’()(*+!,"$-( .&/0&%1"(2(1#.’3$(2(,"’+("’/+ Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Xerri, Daniel. Seamus Heaney's early work : poetic responsibility and the troubles / Daniel Xerri. Irish Research Series # 59 p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-933146-91-1 ISBN-10: 1-933146-91-5 1. Heaney, Seamus, 1939—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PR6058.E2Z98 2010 821'.914--dc22 2010023113 Copyright 2010 Daniel Xerri All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Academica Press, LLC Box 60728 Cambridge Station Palo Alto, CA. 94306 Website: www.academicapress.com to order: 650-329-0685 To my mother CONTENTS Abbreviations ix Preface xi Acknowledgements xv Chapter 1 Heaney’s Poet and Tightrope-Walking 1 Chapter 2 Growing into a King of the Dark: 17 Death of a Naturalist (1966) and Door into the Dark (1969) Chapter 3 The Swinging Tongue in Vowelling Embrace: 37 Wintering Out (1972) Chapter 4 Unearthing Befitting Emblems of Adversity: North 57 (1975) Bibliography 87 Index 91 ABBREVIATIONS DN Death of a Naturalist DD Door into the Dark WO Wintering Out N North OG Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996 P Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968-1978 GT The Government of the Tongue: The 1986 T.S. Eliot Memorial Lectures and other Critical Writings