Seamus Heaney

1939 – 2013

Seamus Justin Heaney was an Irish poet, playwright, and translator who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past." His 14 poetry collections beginning with Death of a Naturalist (1966) drew on his rural County Derry childhood and the political violence of the Northern Ireland Troubles, while his 1999 verse translation of Beowulf became one of the best-selling poetic translations in modern English. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats."

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM