Synopses & Reviews
Whether autobiographical, topical, or specifically literary, these writings circle the central preoccupying questions of Seamus Heaney's career: "How should a poet properly live and write? What is his relationship to be to his own voice, his own place, his literary heritage and the contemporary world?"
Along with a selection from the poet's three previous collections of prose (Preoccupations, The Government of the Tongue, and The Redress of Poetry), the present volume includes Heaney's finest lectures and a rich variety of pieces not previously collected in volume form, ranging from short newspaper articles to radio commentaries. In its soundings of a wide range of poets -- Irish and British, American and Eastern European, predecessors and contemporaries -- Finders Keepers is, as its title indicates, "an announcement of both excitement and possession."
Seamus Heaney received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. His recent translations include Beowulf (2000) and Diary of One Who Vanished (2000); his recent poetry collections include Opened Ground (1998) and Electric Light (2001).
Finders Keepers collects Seamus Heaney's best prose of the last three decades. Whether autobiographical, topical, or specifically literary, these writings circle the preoccupying questions of Heaney's important career: "How should a poet properly live and write? What is his relationship to be to his own voice, his own place, his literary heritage, and the contemporary world?"
Along with a selection from the poet's three previous collections of prose (Preoccupations, The Government of the Tongue, and The Redress of Poetry), this volume includes Heaney's finest lectures and a rich variety of pieces not previously collected in book form, from short newspaper articles to radio commentaries. In its clear and challenging soundings of a wide range of poets and poeticsIrish and British, American and Eastern European, predecessors and contemporariesFinders Keepers is, as its title heralds, "an announcement of both excitement and possession."
"Heaney is one of the great living poets . . . and as this new selection of his essays and lectures shows, he has written often and beautifully about poets, poems, and poetry in general . . . [Finders Keepers] will delight those who have come to love Heaney's own rich and humane verse."Adam Kirsch, The Boston Globe
"[Heaney's essays exhibit] a brimming metaphoric energy [and] a buoyant vivacity of description . . . reflective humor . . . and imaginative penetration [that are] unequalled in contemporary critical prose."Helen Vendler, The New Yorker
"The common thread [in Heaney's Finders Keepers] is a spontaneous, insistent relating of poetry to his own experience. His profoundest initiations are fed back through his reading and writing. As the anthology's title suggests, the glee of discovery, the flush of pride in staking a claim, is balanced by the steadier pleasures of taking possession, of quilting another's wisdom into one's own . . . [Heaney] remains confident that 'a good poem allows you to have your feet on the ground and your head in the air simultaneously.' No other commentator has so clearly tracked the see-saw of these conflicting demands in post-war poetry."Clair Wills, The Times Literary Supplement
"[The] much-lauded, much-published poet [provides] cogent literary and political commentary . . . Brining his gift [for] the sound, cadence, and meaning of words to bear on the burning issues of Northern Ireland is one area where [his] passion shines through."Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Poetry has been marginalized in our culture. But there are a few masters who rise to its defense so stirringly that they can send us back to the shelves to renew our acquaintance with the poems we were once force-fed in lit classes. Seamus Heaney is one of them . . . [In] Finders Keepers: Selected Prose 1971-2001, Heaney gives us appreciations of poets ranging from Robert Burns to Sylvia Plath, as well as autobiographical pieces . . . Heaney takes us to those places where we can find the genuine consolation that literature can provide."Charles Matthews, The Biloxi Sun Herald
"A better all-in-one guide through the realms of the poetical, the personal, and the political, you couldn't hope for, and a more sure-footed traveller through the territories of language, you'd be hard-pressed to find close at hand . . . By ducking out of the typical journal's miasma of self-consciously erudite pontification and holding fast to his mind's own solid ground, he cuts to the bone of the work of such architects of verse as Robert Burns, Zbigniew Herbert, Sylvia Plath, William Butler Yeats, Philip Larkin, Joseph Brodsky, and T.S. Eliot with remarkably revealing results."Jeremy Spencer, The Memphis Flyer
"[Heaney's literary criticism is] as life-enhancing . . . as the poems it celebrates."Andrew Motion, The Observer (London)
Review
"A brimming metaphoric energy . . a buoyant vivacity of description . . . reflective humor . . . and an imaginative penetration . . . unequalled in contemporary critical prose." --Helen Vendler,
The New YorkerSeamus Heaney's best prose of the last three decades -- work "as life-enhancing . . . as the poems it celebrates." --Andrew Motion, The Observer [London]
Review
“[Heaneys] approach to poetry—sensitive but tolerant, and attentive to beauty above all—suffuses Finders Keepers. It will delight those who have come to love Heaneys own rich and humane verse.” —Adam Kirsch, The Boston Globe
Review
“[Heaneys] approach to poetry—sensitive but tolerant, and attentive to beauty above all—suffuses Finders Keepers. It will delight those who have come to love Heaneys own rich and humane verse.” —Adam Kirsch, The Boston Globe "A collection of Heaney's biographical reminiscences and frequently rhapsodic but meticulous critical essays. Heaney's is a lifelong romance with words." — Christina Cho, The New York Times Book Review "[Heaney's] critical prose can be as impassioned and as musical as the verse he's explicating...Heaney takes us to those places where we can find the genuine consolation that literature can provide." — Charles Matthews, The Seattle Times
Synopsis
Whether autobiographical, topical, or specifically literary, these writings circle the central preoccupying questions of Seamus Heaney's career: "How should a poet properly live and write? What is his relationship to be to his own voice, his own place, his literary heritage and the contemporary world?"
Along with a selection from the poet's three previous collections of prose (Preoccupations, The Government of the Tongue, and The Redress of Poetry), the present volume includes Heaney's finest lectures and a rich variety of pieces not previously collected in volume form, ranging from short newspaper articles to radio commentaries. In its soundings of a wide range of poets -- Irish and British, American and Eastern European, predecessors and contemporaries -- Finders Keepers is, as its title indicates, "an announcement of both excitement and possession."
Synopsis
A selection of the best of three decades of writing about poetry, a celebration of the “tenacious curiosity” (Los Angeles Times) of the Nobel laureateWhether autobiographical, topical, or specifically literary, these writings circle the central preoccupying questions of Seamus Heaneys career: “How should a poet properly live and write? What is his relationship to his own voice, his own place, his literary heritage, and the contemporary world?”
Along with a selection from Heaneys three previous collections of prose (Preoccupations, The Government of the Tongue, and The Redress of Poetry), the present volume includes a rich variety of pieces not previously collected in books, ranging from formal lectures to radio commentaries about the rural Ireland of his childhood to illuminating reviews of his contemporaries. In its soundings of a wide range of poets—Irish and British, American and Eastern European, predecessors, fellows, and successors—Finders Keepers becomes, as its title heralds, “an announcement of both excitement and possession.”
About the Author
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. His poems, plays, translations, and essays include Opened Ground, Electric Light, Beowulf, The Spirit Level, District and Circle, and Finders Keepers. Robert Lowell praised Heaney as the "most important Irish poet since Yeats."