Seamus Heaney’s Gifts
by Henry Hart
(LSU Press, 2024, 342 pp., $30.74)
In the preface to Seamus Heaney’s Gifts, author Henry Hart recounts an evening he spent with Heaney a few decades prior. He was researching for a book on Heaney and the two met in Heaney’s Harvard residence. Heaney’s well-known generosity is on display here, with Heaney giving Hart a signed copy of his book, Station Island (1984), which had recently been published. It seems that the origins of the book lay in this encounter, given the details of Heaney’s magnanimity and that Hart’s discussion of Heaney’s long poem, “Station Island,” is among the most incisive parts of the book. What follows is an account of Seamus Heaney’s life and an account of his works framed by the poet’s view of the importance of gifts. “Gifts,” here, is meant to be interpreted in all the ways one might: Heaney as a “gifted” poet, his viewing of his life experiences as gifts—Hart even glosses Marcel Mauss’s The Gift (1924) to help the reader understand Heaney’s views of the benefits and burdens of gifts.
The anecdote at Harvard is touching, but it also frames the book aggressively: combining a biography of Heaney’s life with (mostly) brief commentary on his entire corpus as both pertain to gifts will be no easy feat. Sometimes this difficulty reveals itself. Much of the narrative of Heaney’s life is replete with details about the importance of gifts, whether explicit or implicit, and whether timely or not. For instance, we learn of the “Ancestral Gifts” that will make their way into Heaney’s poetry, such as the selfless maternal love he received in an otherwise austere and staid Catholic farming household. Clearly this is something important to both Heaney’s biography and his poetic output, which Hart discusses well. But we are never allowed to forget the gift theme, either: Hart reminds us of it often, whether fitting or not. He details childhood anecdotes that pertain to gift-giving, interpretations of life events as gifts, statements about lines in Heaney’s poetry interpreted through the lens of the gift, or simply stating that Heaney, at some points in his life, gave gifts to people.
At times, this aggressiveness in the book’s framing yields great results. The commentary Hart provides on the poems is often good. His reading of “Station Island,” corresponds neatly to his account of Heaney’s having “fashioned a composite pilgrimage to pay tribute to a variety of literary gift-givers.” Here, Hart weaves a reading of the poem with thematically appropriate remarks from Heaney’s lectures and details from his life at the time he was visiting Lough Derg, where the Island lies. It isn’t surprising to me that it’s in these passages where Hart offers his most sustained attention to the poems. Likewise with “Sweeny Astray” and Heaney’s Beowulf translation. Here, his commentary on gifts seems critically relevant. The topics at hand in these passages naturally lend themselves to discussions of gift-giving. In other parts of the book, however, one feels as if they are being reminded that the book is about gifts, sometimes in passages that seem to come out of nowhere. The Beowulf episode is particularly interesting because gift-giving is an especially apt interpretation of the poem’s ancient form of social organization, and Hart deftly moves between details of the publishing and composition process, a reading of Heaney’s translation, and the Troubles without excessive focus on either. Yet, this is not always the case.
This dual-mandate Hart assigns himself, to cover Heaney’s life biographically and provide commentary on his poetry without being biographical criticism, is difficult, and it’s not always clear which tack he is trying to take. As a biography, the prose is very clear and readable, but at times it lapses into repeating a similar pattern: the poet leaves to go teach literature, he becomes a well-respected professor, but then becomes melancholic and homesick, wondering if he is neglecting his gifts. We see this conclude his time in Berkeley, during his years at Harvard, and later in the book as he is lining up lectures and readings. Frankly, as brilliant a poet as he is, perhaps there are some things in Heaney’s life that aren’t interesting enough to constitute a biography such as this. There are episodes from his past, such as his time spent at Anahorish Primary School, that seem unnecessary to tell a compelling story about Heaney and gifts. By the book’s own argument and Heaney’s own admission, this time was not nearly as influential as a gift he received upon leaving for St. Columb’s College, and as his later time spent there (which rightfully receives significant attention), but without the episode at Anahorish, we wouldn’t be able to read about the anthropological concept of the “threshold gift.” It’s true, as Hart notes, that he discusses Anahorish in “The School Bag,” but to merit little more than a passing reference, why include this as a chapter? The answer is that Hart is attempting to write a biography, or at least a critical appreciation (without being a book of criticism) but then that biography is ultimately bogged down by the previously established framing.
There are, however, other strengths to this book. Hart is, himself, a poet and has written many books on various poets, and thus the book is written for those with an interest in poetry—not specialists in Irish studies. Nevertheless, he manages to explain the unavoidable political and cultural problems in Northern Ireland succinctly, such that it does not distract him from writing about poetry. Despite this, however, he frequently uses “Ulster” to refer to Northern Ireland, which is incorrect and easily avoidable.[1] He takes care not to avoid detailing the social stratification in Northern Ireland or the Troubles when they do break out. Although he does characterize the conflict in ethno-religious terms, he also identifies that the conflict is constituted by real class differences as well, which most writers who are not specialists in the region do not do. Additionally, since the book is about Heaney as a poet, and not an “Irish poet,” the significant amount of space Hart dedicates to the influences of Robert Lowell and Ted Hughes demonstrate excellent research and fit the project well, and the minor space given to the Field Day project makes sense.
The biographical episodes about his time spent at St. Columb’s College and Queen’s University Belfast are compelling to Heaney enthusiasts, and to enthusiasts of Irish literature, because of how formative they were in founding his career as a poet, not to mention because the reader gets to see him first encounter figures such as Seamus Deane, Michael Longley, etc., with whom he collaborated throughout his life—figures who themselves made significant contributions to Irish literature. But Hart also provides great narrative texture, as well. When reading these passages, I could envision myself sympathizing with the homesick Heaney at St. Columb’s and being in a literature seminar with him at Queen’s.
The book also ends beautifully, with an anecdote showing Heaney’s interpersonal generosity, just as with the scene from the book’s opening. It is these cases where Hart’s thematic interest in gifts truly shines. Heaney’s generosity in friendship, in his tireless sharing of his poetic output with the public, and in his manner are conveyed by Hart in a way that obviates much of the gift-related material that seems forced in other parts of the book.
It seems Hart might have instead sought to write a long essay on the topic, perhaps focusing on how Heaney often drew upon his experiences and the gifts involved—both giving and receiving, with the gift as an act of generosity and as a conferral of silent obligation to the giver—and how the gifts he had, gave, and received affected his poetic output. Something like this could work as a sequel to his earlier book, Seamus Heaney: Poet of Contrary Progressions (1992), which is a systematic, critical study of Heaney’s corpus, written prior to the publication of Heaney’s four final volumes of poetry and his celebrated translation of Beowulf (among other things). Or, perhaps Hart might have instead written a straightforward biography of Heaney without attempting to tackle both biography and criticism under such a narrow rubric. Nevertheless, at times Hart does manage to artfully fuse the two, and it is in these moments that his book rises to the level of a gift.
Note
- Ulster refers to the province composed of nine counties in the north of the island of Ireland. The 1920 Government of Ireland Act took six of those counties to constitute a new statelet of the United Kingdom. Moreover, “Ulster” is often used synonymously with Northern Ireland by Unionists and Loyalists to counter the united Ireland rhetoric of Nationalists and Republicans. It thus often (though not always) has partisan connotations. ↑