Heaney’s Firsts

Dolmányos, Péter (2026) Heaney’s Firsts. In: Hungarian Perspectives on Ireland. Károli Könyvek. Tanulmánykötet . L'Harmattan Kiadó; Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem; Éditions L'Harmattan; L’Harmattan Open Access, Budapest, Paris, pp. 113-126. ISBN 9782336615448; 9789636465940

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Abstract

Seamus Heaney’s volumes of poetry demonstrate a carefully planned negotiation of the dual itineraries of continuity and exploration of new directions. Heaney’s constant critical (re)assessment of his own poetic practice resulted in collections that would regularly resituate emphases and focuses yet at the same time they also demonstrate a solid and stable underlying matrix of values that sustains a consistent core of poetic sensibility. Heaney’s whole oeuvre is a body of poetry that has its anchoring in a set of recurring concerns with an increasing range of approaches, motifs and themes as each volume resituates the poetic direction in a subtle way. While the structural organization of volumes differs in terms of division into sections, the arc of movement each collection displays give a prominent role to their respective opening poem. Heaney’s choice of the first poem, on occasion dedicatory, on occasion simply placed as first without specific marking, yet involving anticipatory and epiphanic potential, provides an intriguing cue to his tactics not only in terms of the respective collection but his whole career as well. A more thorough consideration of these first poems, especially those of his late phase, can offer further insight into Heaney’s view of poetry and his own poetics.

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