Opened Ground
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Seamus Heaney (winner of the Nobel prize for literature in 1995) gathered over 200 of his best poems in this collection, selected from twelve of his previous books of published poetry. The selection covers the period 1966 - 1996. It also contains his Nobel Lecture, "Crediting Poetry", since, as the author explains, "the ground covered in the lecture is ground originally opened by the poems which here precede it."
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I read Heaney for the first time more than 12 years ago now (thanks Mr. Masterman!) Death of a Naturalist was probably the second poem I can really remember thinking hard about. I wouldn't say I'm a poetry guy, but Heaney's command of sound and imagery gets me. Take Blackberry Picking, or The Gravel Walks; he can pull out feeling from the simplest of scenes. I'll add some thoughts here as I am reminded of particular pieces.
Digging
Mid-Term Break
Requiem for the Croppies
A Call
