District and Circle

Poems

Seamus Heaney

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Paperbacks

Download Image Seamus Heaney District and Circle
Award
  • Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Buy it now

Available Formats

Book
District and Circle inhabits the eerie new conditions of a menaced twenty-first century. In their haunted, almost visionary clarity, the poems assay the weight and worth of what has been held in the hand and in the memory. Scenes from a childhood spent far from the horrors of World War II are colored by a strongly contemporary sense that “Anything can happen,” and other images from the dangerous present—a fireman’s helmet, a journey on the Underground, a melting glacier—are fraught with this same anxiety. But the volume, which includes some “found prose” poems and translations, offers resistance as the poet gathers his staying powers and stands his ground in the hiding places of love and excited language. With more relish and conviction than ever, Heaney maintains his trust in the obduracy of workaday realities and the mystery of everyday renewals.

Connect with the Author

Seamus Heaney

Official Sites

Related Links

Sign Up for
Author Updates

Reviews

Praise for District and Circle

“A book as original , startling and aesthetically compelling as any since his magisterial 1984 sequence, Station Island. ” —The Washington Post Book World
 
“[Heaney’s] voice carries the authenticity and believability of the plainspoken—even though (herein his magic) his words are anything but plainspoken. His stanzas are dense echo chambers of contending nuances and ricocheting sounds. And his is the gift of saying something extraordinary while, line by line, conveying a sense that this is something an ordinary person might actually say.” —Brad Leithauser, The New York Times Book Review

Reviews from Goodreads

Placeholder
Abby  rated it  
Sep 13, 2011
Dark, lucid poems about the land and the implications for those living on it. ...more
Placeholder
SmarterLilac  rated it  
Aug 1, 2011
While I expected to give this a hearty skim-through at the Borders closing sale, I wound up really enjoying this. Heaney's ability to craft textured verse on meaningful topics sets him apart from his contemporaries. ...more
Placeholder
Cemilypug  rated it  
Aug 11, 2009
As always, this book contains the wonderful magic and earthiness of Heaney's poetry. He is a mster poet with warmth, depth, and wisdom. ...more
See all Reviews
Back

About the Author

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney’s first collection, Death of a Naturalist, appeared forty years ago. Since then he has published poetry, criticism, and translations that have established him as one of the leading poets of his generation. In 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Seamus Heaney

Keith Barnes
Seamus Heaney

Official Sites

Related Links

Back

Buy the Book

Available Formats and Book Details

District and Circle
Poems
Seamus Heaney
Award

Nobel Prize For Literature

Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Paperbacks
April 2007
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780374530815
ISBN10: 0374530815
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 96 pages
$14.00
Buy

Hardcover

Learn more about this edition
Hardcover
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
May 2006
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780374140922
ISBN10: 0374140928
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 96 pages
$20.00
Buy
Books for Courses Available
Back

From The Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Latest on Facebook

Latest on Twitter

Back

{ About }

{ Services }

{ Store }

{ Publishers }

Education

Children's

© 2011 Macmillan