Seamus Heaney
Biography and lesson plans

| Biography and Background | | "Blackberry Picking" | | "Casualty" | | "Digging" | | "In a Field" | | Resources for Multiple Poems, Miscellaneous Poems |

Biography and Background

Biography and links to related sites.

Brief biography and a discussion of selected poems.

Selected poems.

Biography with emphasis on the development of poetic themes.

Biography, Heaney's Nobel lecture, poems, and other resources from the Nobel site.

Links to a few poems, bibliography.

Links to online criticism.

Biography, links to some poems, a gallery of graphics, and related links.

"Blackberry Picking"

Analysis of the poem.

The poet reads "Blackberry Picking." This video is just over 2 minutes long.

This lesson uses "Blackberry Picking" to teach an inductive strategy to unlock meaning. Students work through a 3-step process. Once discussion of the poem is complete, students realize that they have just demonstrated their ability to explicate a poem in order to support a theme statement if asked to write about a poem's meaning.

"Casualty"

Text of the poem. Click on "Poem Guide" for critical analysis and on "About this Poem" for biography.

"Digging"

This online slide presentation/reading of the poem may help students visualize the text.

Text of the poem.

Text of the poem.

Analysis of the poem.

Words are presented in context and with definitions. Click on a word for pronunciation, examples of recent use, more.

"In a Field"

Background information and the text of the poem.

Resources for Multiple Poems

Biography, critical commentary, visuals, and suggestions for writing about "Digging," "Perch," and "Storm on the Island."

Downloadable audio file of the poem (1:56).

Text of the poem. Click on "Listen" to hear Garrison Keillor's reading.

Commentary and analysis of "Storm on the Island," "Perch," "Blackberry-Picking," "Death of a Naturalist," "Digging," "Mid-Term Break," "Follower," "At a Potato Digging," "The Early Purges," and "The Play Way."

Streaming audio of a lecture about "Singing School: # 4" ("Summer 1969"), "Station Island: VII" ("I had come to the edge of the water") "The Strand at Lough Beg," and "Station Island: VIII" ("Black water. White waves. Furrows snowcapped."). The entire discussion is 41 minutes long.