Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney has been described as “the most important Irish poet since Yeats.” In honor of Irish American Heritage Month, check out some of his thoughts on poetry, literature, and life.
"Poetry is more a threshold than a path." -- Seamus Heaney
"If poetry and art can do anything, they can fortify your inner life, your inwardness." -- Seamus Heaney
"The poet is on the side of undeceiving the world." -- Seamus Heaney
"Every time you read a poem aloud to yourself in the presence of others, you are reading it into yourself and them. Voice helps to carry words farther and deeper than the eye." -- Seamus Heaney
"Memory has always been fundamental for me. In fact, remembering what I had forgotten is the way most of the poems get started." -- Seamus Heaney
"The end of art is peace." -- Seamus Heaney
"The experiment of poetry, as far as I am concerned, happens when the poem carries you beyond where you could have reasonably expected to go." -- Seamus Heaney
"I rhyme/To see myself, to set/the darkness echoing." -- Seamus Heaney
Stay Connected to the National Endowment for the Arts
