Out of the Marvellous: Documentary on Seamus Heaney

I just watched the documentary on Seamus Heaney, shown on BBC 4 last night and available on IPlayer now on the link below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03b9q6j/Seamus_Heaney_Out_of_the_Marvellous/

Heaney has a secure place in my poetry canon, both as poet and as human being. Few poets whose lives have overlapped with my lifetime, have captured so much of what I recognise and discover to be true, important and durable in my own experience. R S Thomas and Denise Levertov more often than not; Mary Oliver now and then; Elizabeth Jennings when on her good and very good days.

But Heaney's poetry, and the persuasive humanity and generosity of mind he exhibited, make his poetry accessible and familiar. He makes the local universal, his poetry combines lyrical beauty and ethical depth - the observations included in the speech of conferral for the Nobel Prize.

Just go watch this programme and encounter the poet who gives poets and poetry not only a good name, but does so with a self-effacing modesty and knowing humanity that is his poetry's own justication.

Comments

[Duncan MacPherson]

Thank's Jim for highlighting this programme. I found it very moving. It inspired me to read some of his poems. I especially like MIRACLE.