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Introduction -Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet and writer was given the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995 because of his outstanding contribution to literature. -His contribution reaches far from different poems, prose's, plays, translations and limited editions and booklets (Poetry and prose). Body -Biography -Early Life -Career - 1995 Nobel Prize acceptance speech -Irish Resistance history -Punishment poem -Connection between Biography, Irish Resistance history, and the poem Conclusion -Because of his great experience in writing and producing excellent writing, he was awarded with the Nobel Prize for literature. - Putting meaning to his poems which were reflected by his personal memories as well as other different issues regarding the Irish people, he showed dedication to serve for the well-being of Ireland which makes him a great write Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet and writer was given the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995 because of his outstanding contribution to literature. His contribution reaches far from different poems, prose's, plays, translations and limited editions and booklets (Poetry and prose). The Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995 was given to Seamus Heaney who was and still is an extra ordinary writer from Ireland. He was given this award because of his outstanding contribution to literature by being loyal to the world and by producing excellent poems. Not only is he known for his controversial writings in poems but he as well wrote different prose's, plays, translations and limited editions and booklets that were part poems and part prose's.
His writing skills are unique because of his combination of language and technique and the way of creating a balance between different topics including personal as well as aspects of the Irish culture, history, and religion. His writings were not only about describing the Irish experience to every reader but he also used his writing and describing the Irish so that the readers could feel the emotions of Irish people. According to Nordin There is a very strong autobiographical element in Heaney's work, where personal memory and a sense of the local have been vital ingredients in his poetry from the start. (p. 3) To put it in a different way, Seamus Heaney was strongly motivated to express his memories which had a lot to do with different aspects of every Irish citizen. Writing was also focused on political events, where he states his political views. Most of his writing has a debunking meaning and is concerned about his as well as the readers perspective. He tries to reach out to his audience and is capable of doing so.
Seamus Heaney was born in April 1939 and was the oldest son of nine children. His father worked on a small farm in County Derry in Northern Ireland which he owned. Heaney's mother belonged to the McCann family who were more connected with the modern world than his father. Heaney attended the local primary school being a country boy. The first poems that came to public were in mid 1960 s where he was playing an active role in the Northern School, a group of Irish writers. Writing many poems which wasnt really respected by the public, more taken as political propaganda, this had a negative effect on Heaney and his work.
It darkened its mood and it was stable in his works in the 1970 s. Not only did it make him darken his mood, it also gave him a closer look at himself, his poems and how those are seen in the world. It is difficult for a writer to write poems because it is either because writers enjoy the freedom of expressing themselves in their poems or because society wants to see the poems that way. But nevertheless, he was true to himself and wrote about what he thought is right and worth writing about. Today, Seamus Heaney who was seen as a country boy back then, is now seen as a major poet.
His career or better say his poems were mostly based on political conflicts between landlords and peasants, between Catholics and Protestants, and between different classes. He also wrote those poems to have a stand on his point of view regarding his homeland, Ireland. It is his place and he has a strong feeling for it which he tried to show with his poems. He has written many poems prose's such as Digging, Death Of A Naturalist, Requiem for the Copies, Personal Helicon, From The Frontier Of Writing, Exposure, Rite of Spring and many more.
Seamus Heaney was given the Nobel Prize for his excellence performance in contributing to literature. Even though he has a political view, he still does not take sides and only stands for peace and emphasizes peace in his poems and refuses to take sides with anyone who supports violence and war. In his Nobel lecture he was talking about evil forces trying to stop writers from pursuing what they were meant to do which is writing. At the end of his speech, he concluded by talking about him not taking sides in his poetry as well as by saying that writing poems is a unique way to get to peoples conscious and help them remember how times used to be and how people used to feel. The Irish people had to suffer a lot because of the British during the 1954 - 1981 and they would always suffer unless they become sovereign and could act to their desires without someone interfering. Irish people suffered as well as writers and literature itself.
In the nineteenth century, Literature was highly effected by politics and people trying to use it as an influence for other people. Literature offered everyone a way to convince other people and therefore it helped solving problems and creating a political identity. The Irish Resistance is about the different conflicts that happened between Ireland and Britain, where Ireland tried to find themselves as a country and find its identity. The Punishment is a poem that talks about a corpse of a catholic woman from Northern Ireland who was ritually sacrificed and put in front of porches for dating British soldiers. The theme is Punishment which is already stated by the title of the poem.
Not only punishment but also revenge is talked about. The civilized outrage indicates the revenge the Irish people towards the British as well as the intimate revenge. The Irish history has experienced many conflicts and violence and those are stated in Heaney's work. There is a connection between Seamus Heaney's Biography, the Irish Resistance history and his poems. First of all, they are all about him and what he has experienced in his life and what he had to go through.
Being Irish at that time was extremely difficult because of the History and the conflicts with Britain. Having a strong feeling about writing, he challenged himself personally as well as the society. His work is remarkable and inseparable, showing what Irish people were experiencing and using his skills to use perfect word choices in order to let the readers feel the emotions, the pain and the suffer of all Irish people at that time. The connection between all three of them is the struggle of Seamus Heaney and all Irish people, the conflict that were faced, a timeline that shows how the Irish people lived back then and how they stood up for themselves in order to fight for their land, their home. According to Lloyd Heaney's poetry is very much a poetry of the self and of the Irish rural background in which he was born and in which he grew up.
There is a deep element of what he calls himself the sense of place the sense of being part of the very landscape, both geographical and historical. (p. 4). In other words, Seamus Heaney wrote about himself, his Irish rural background as well as about the geographical aspects of Ireland such as the land and about the history. Seamus Heaney is one of the greatest and most respected writers from Ireland. He has contributed immensely with his writings to literature and therefore he is highly respected and will always be respected and remembered as one of the contributors.
As known, he was given the Nobel Prize to honor him with his success. He definitely deserved it since he did not stop himself from writing having many obstacles to face before, during the Irish Resistance and for sure right after it. He never gave up and was always brave enough to raise his voice by writing poems and describe his perspective about different ranges of subjects including topics like the relationship between contemporary issues and historical patterns but as well as about legends and myths, nature, and love. Bibliography 1. Haughey, James P. "Partitioned Memories: The Great War in Irish Poetry. " LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory 10. 2 (Oct. 1999): 181. Academic Search Complete.
EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 6 May 2009 < web >. 2. Lloyd, David. "Pap for the Dispossessed": Seamus Heaney and the Poetics of Identity. boundary 2 13. 2 / 3 (Winter/Spring 85 1985): 319 - 342. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 6 May 2009 < web >. 3. Molino, Michael R. "Flying by the nets of language and nationality: Seamus Heaney, the 'English' language, and... " Modern Philology 91. 2 (Nov. 1993): 180.
Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 6 May 2009 < web >. 4. Nordin, Irene Gilsenan. "Seamus Heaney: From the Personal to the Universal. " Studia Neophilologica 72. 2 (Dec. 2000): 174 - 180. Academic Search Complete.
EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 6 May 2009 < web >.
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Research essay sample on Seamus Heaney Nobel Prize
