{"id":1122,"date":"2009-04-16T08:27:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-16T15:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2009\/04\/seamus-heaney-on-recession-and-heroism.html"},"modified":"2009-04-16T08:27:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-16T15:27:00","slug":"seamus-heaney-on-recession-and-heroism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2009\/04\/seamus-heaney-on-recession-and-heroism.html","title":{"rendered":"Seamus Heaney on Recession and Heroism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
MONDAY marked seamus heaney’s 70th birthday. i know this blog is in danger of drowning in a sea of green — between morrissey and john lennon, both of irish descent, oscar wilde’s poll position, and st. patrick’s day, i am flying the celtic flag high.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
but let me discuss the nobel-winning irishman for a second. i am sympathetic to the argument that heaney ceased being a great poet when he became, in the eyes of the world, a charming irish sage… he has done no single book of poems quite as tough as “north” for decades now.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
but his translation of “beowulf” was terrific. i\u00a0had the pleasure of speaking to him a few years back for this slate piece<\/a> about the anglo-saxon epic, heroism and the sound of poetry in general. in fact, his essay “england of the mind,” on the way larkin, hughes and geoffrey hill each use a different version (with respective historical and religious echoes) of english in their work is one of the best things i’ve ever read on the art.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
tim rutten, LAT columnist and irishman himself, offers this fine column<\/a> on how heaney and his work inform our present slumping moment. in barest form, heaney suggests fortifying one’s inner life to survive life’s ups and downs — the latter a subject the irish know well, especially with death of the celtic tiger. \u00a0\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
i’ll look forward to going back to the man’s poetry and essays this week.\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
enthusiasts of heaney’s work should also know of this<\/a> very extensive fan site.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
anyone have a fave heaney poem with which to toast the man’s 70th?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Photo credit: seamusheaney.org<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONDAY marked seamus heaney’s 70th birthday. i know this blog is in danger of drowning in a sea of green — between morrissey and john lennon, both of irish descent, oscar wilde’s poll position, and st. patrick’s day, i am flying the celtic flag high. but let me discuss the nobel-winning irishman for a second. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[515,31,516,139,90],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-beowulf","7":"category-downturn","8":"category-heaney","9":"category-irish","10":"category-poetry","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}