“Heaney is keyed and pitched unlike any significant poet now at work in the language, anywhere.” —Harold Bloom, The Times Literary Supplement

“In 1938, not a moment too soon, W. B. Yeats abmonished his colleagues: 'Irish poets, learn your trade.' Seamus Heaney, born the following year, has learned his trade so well that it is now a second nature wonderfully responsive to his first.” —Denis Donoghue, The New York Times Book Review (front page)

“His is the most striking talent to come out of Ireland since that of the late Patrick Kavanagh.” —Stephen Spender

“Heaney has all the primary gifts of a poet, and they are gifts put at the service of a constant meditation on primary themes, on nature and history and moral choice.” —John Gross, The New York Times