The Spirit Level: Poems

Seamus Heaney as a way of looking at an issue and bending his thoughts in directions that amuse and enlighten the reader. His work in The Spirit Level:Poems is classic Heaney.

delightful, lyrical, down-to-earth, dream-like language, breathtaking language and Awe-inspiring. It is sad to think that he isn't with us any longer to write more beautiful poetry.

Heaney's style is unique and clear. His poem are powerful. I am very satisfied with the book and the seller.

I last took an "Eng. Lit." course at school, for a GCE O level, in 1962, and I got a 45% pass ---- 45 was a pass in those days. Despite this evidence of my disinterest, poetry has fascinated me all my life, and Heaney "does the business" for yours truly. [Basil Bunting first did it for me.] By god, the man knows his words, does he not? I enjoy Heaney's poems to the hilt, and yet when I read reviews, it's obvious there are fathoms more I would never and could never understand. No matter. I am aided by our shared boyhoods on farms, and by a serious connection to and loving appreciation of objects and their textures. By contrast, Eliot and Pound mean almost nothing to me because I never read literature or the classics, which are their sole source material. Seamus Heaney is the man. I hope many more folks like me get their hands on his books. Well worth sitting down again and again and again, digging into his rich porridge.

I have no right to review this collection of poetry. Seamus Heany is a god, and now, sadly for us, is among them.

He is a precious good writer of the common and the heroic.

Excellent. Thank you.

i loved Heaney's shorter poems in this collection, reading them over and over again at night and in the early morning.One good example "Thimble" p. 51. He carries the image of a thimble from a container for a painter, to a miraculous cure involving a bell made too heavy for injured workmen who made it that needed to be shrunk to be mounted, to a wee shot of whiskey tickling the throat - to a skinny kid with a nipple cover, ends (#5) "and so on." He sees the true essence of poetry and of all art for that matter is to carry an image wherever it leads.

I'm a complete novice to poetry but I am immediately struck by Heaney's extraordinary choice and use of words. His shorter poems cover many everyday events with compassion, dry humour and wit. His translations of classical texts are hard work and I can only read a few verses at a time but worth it for the word craft.

Fantastic collection of poems. Really enjoy coming back to the collection now and then.

good purchase

Bought this as a present but loved it so much I think I'll buy it for myself. some beautiful poetry!