"His words give us the soil-reek of Ireland, the colourful violence of his childhood on a farm in Derry. The full-blooded energy of these poems makes Death of a Naturalist the best first book of poems I've read for some time." —C.B. Cox in the Spectator
Death of a Naturalist marked the auspicious debut of Seamus Heaney, a universally acclaimed master of modern literature. As a first book of poems, it is remarkable for its accurate perceptions and rich linguistic gifts.
"The power and precision of his best poems are a delight, and as a first collection Death of a Naturalist is outstanding. . . . His subject is those things which are inherent or inherited. What he praises is to be praised in his own work." —Christopher Ricks, New Statesman
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. His poems, plays, translations, and essays include Opened Ground, Electric Light, Beowulf, The Spirit Level, District and Circle, and Finders Keepers. Robert Lowell praised Heaney as the "most important Irish poet since Yeats."