The Spirit Level : Poems

Heaney, Seamus

ISBN 10: 0571178227 / ISBN 13: 9780571178223

Published by Faber & Faber, 1996

About this Item

1996 Faber Paperback 1st Edition 1st Impression. Like new appears unread.

Seller Inventory # ABE-12860138681

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Spirit Level : Poems
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571178227
• ISBN 13: 9780571178223
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Heaney, Seamus
  • Ireland
  • Poetry

About this title

Synopsis

The poems in Seamus Heaney''s collection The Spirit Level keep discovering the possibilities of ''a new beginning'' in all kinds of subjects and circumstances. What is at stake, in poem after poem, is the chance of buoyancy and balance, physical, spiritual and political. Private memories, classical scenes, humble domestic objects - a whitewash brush, a sofa, a swing - are endowed with talismanic significance, while friends and relatives are invoked for their promise and steadfastness. Throughout the collection, Heaney addresses his concerns, which inevitably include the political situation in his native Northern Ireland, in a poetry that never ceases to be fluid, alert and completely truthful.

Review

The title of Seamus Heaney's first collection of poetry since winning the Nobel Prize in 1995 is the term used in Ireland for a carpenter's level, an earthy physical allusion to matters of spirit that is quintessential Heaney. And indeed this volume deals masterfully with the finding of a level balancing point in ethical, moral, and spiritual affairs. Heaney has famously likened his craft to the farming activities of his childhood, comparing his pen to his father's spade; here he extends that analogy, comparing the lines of a poem to furrows being plowed in the earth, and "the poem as ploughshare that turns time/ Up and over." Heaney's furrows are straight and clean, his loamy lines abundantly fertile.