Opened Ground

Selected Poems, 1966-1996

Seamus Heaney

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Paperbacks

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As selected by the author, Opened Ground includes the essential work from Heaney's twelve previous books of poetry, as well as new sequences drawn from two of his landmark translations, The Cure at Troy and Sweeney Astray, and several previously uncollected poems. Heaney's voice is like no other--"by turns mythological and journalistic, rural and sophisticated, reminiscent and impatient, stern and yielding, curt and expansive" (Helen Vendler, The New Yorker)--and this is a one-volume testament to the musicality and precision of that voice. The book closes with Heaney's Nobel Lecture: "Crediting Poetry."

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Praise for Opened Ground

"[This collection] eloquently confirms his status as the most skillful and profound poet writing in English today."--Edward Mendelson, The New York Times Book Review

"Perhaps the best descriptions of Seamus Heaney's extraordinarily rich and varied oeuvre come from the poet's own work. Mr. Heaney has created a remarkable series of poems that stay 'true to the impact of external reality' while at the same time remaining 'sensitive to the inner laws of the poet's being.'"--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"Having just reread most of his poems, I find myself more, not less, interested, and convinced that I have only begun to plumb their bracing depths . . . The poems stay in the mind, which is the one essential feature of major poetry."--Jay Parini, The Nation

"Heaney's commitment to the independence of his art, to the pursuit of shape and richness and abundant ambiguity, is also a profound commitment to the quality of public life . . . In a dark time, Heaney . . . has turned borders and dividing lines into rich frontiers."--Fintan O'Toole, The New York Review of Books

Reviews from Goodreads

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Ike  rated it  
Aug 19, 2011
I'm not usually a poetry guy, but wow - this collection has some of the most striking, powerful, evocative language I've ever come across. Heaney is second to none (Well, maybe second to Nabokov - but the two styles are quite different) in the sheer knock-you-over force of his imagery.

A ...more
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Sarah  rated it  
May 2, 2011
Personally, I think the correct way to read this is: obsessively, over and over again, at Denny's in the middle of the night, every night, while writing a 20 page paper about how totally brilliant and masterful Heaney is in his ability to capture 1500 years of history in elegant, heartbreaking poems ...more
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Aileen  rated it  
Apr 24, 2011
I discovered this collection of poems by way of a friend, and I recall reading Thatcher and thinking "Holy Shit This Is Good". Heaney's poetry has been like an old friend to me. Whenever I revisit him, it feels like wonderful three course meal, complete with a robust round of desserts. He' ...more
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About the Author

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney was born in 1939 in Northern Ireland. His award-winning books of poetry include The Haw Lantern (FSG, 1987), Seeing Things (FSG, 1991), and The Spirit Level (FSG, 1996). A resident of Dublin, he has taught at Oxford and Harvard.

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Seamus Heaney

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Opened Ground
Selected Poems, 1966-1996
Seamus Heaney

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ALA Notable Books - Winner, Nobel Prize For Literature

Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Paperbacks
October 1999
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780374526788
ISBN10: 0374526788
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 464 pages
$18.00
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Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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