CD Review: Seamus Heaney, Collected Poems

Seamus Heaney turned 70 years old on April 17, 2009. To mark the occasion, RTE and the Lannan Foundation partnered to sponsor the release of a new CD set which would feature every poem in the 11 collections thus far printed by Heaney and read by the poet himself. Altogether, there are a total of 15 CDs in the set. It was released for sale in the U.K.and Ireland on May 7th. As yet, it is not available in the U.S. but can be obtained by Heaney enthusiats by ordering it from sellers overseas.

The CD set does not include Heaney's translations, however, and therefore even excludes some of the extracts of which that were included in "Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996". The following is a list of the 11 collections that are included:

"Death of a Naturalist"
"Door Into the Dark"
"Wintering Out"
"North"
"Field Work"
"Station Island"
"The Haw Lantern"
"Seeing Things"
"The Spirit Level"
"Electric Light"
"District and Circle"

As you can see, the work is presented in the order in which it was originally printed. Heaney's deep tones of soft Irish brogue are soothing to the ear and easily showcase the musicality of the poems. Largely due to his tendency to hyphenate words, the poems have a tripping, light play on his tongue that is pleasing. Sometimes, however, his accent is sufficiently heavy that words almost slur and melt into each other (a problem I unfortunately share when attempting to read) and if one is not already familiar with the poem then repeated listening may be required to hash out certain phrases.

As far as I know, this is the first time a poet has released his (or her) entire ouevre on audio and read by his (or her)self. Thus history is made. The timing for the venture could not have been better. Poetry is finally beginning to stand up for itself against so-called pop culture, having been excluded therefrom in every way except in actual practice. Ventures such as this will help the public realise what they have refused to admit until now- that poetry is as important to any given culture's psyche as is it's music, art, and folktales. Indeed, it is the very stuff of life, as Heaney has spent a whole career proving by basing his work firmly on memories of rural Ireland in the not-so-distant past.

This is a most remarkable audio collection and surely will herald many like it in future. Truly, this is a worthy showcase for the work of a master who may be reaching the popularity of a modern-day Yeats.