100 Poems

Seamus Heaney had the idea to make a personal selection of poems from across the entire arc of his writing life, a collection small yet comprehensive enough to serve as an introduction for all comers. He never managed to do this himself, but now, finally, the project has been returned to, resulting in an intimate gathering of poems chosen and introduced by the Heaney family. No other selection of Heaney's poems exists that has such a broad range, drawing from the first to the last of his prizewinning collections.

Praise for Seamus Heaney

"Works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past." —Nobel Prize in Literature, 1995

"Heaney's voice, by turns mythological and journalistic, rural and sophisticated, reminiscent and impatient, stern and yielding, curt and expansive, is one of a suppleness almost equal to consciousness itself." —Helen Vendler

"His is 'close-up' poetry . . . close up to thought, to the world, to the emotions. Few writers at work today, in verse or fiction, can give the sense of rich, fecund, lived life that Heaney does." —John Banville

"More than any other poet since Wordsworth he can make us understand that the outside world is not outside, but what we are made of." —John Carey

"The poet who has shown the finest art in presenting a coherent vision of Ireland, past and present." —Richard Murphy