Seamus Heaney Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Seamus Heaney - Essay Example Some of the prizes he has won include the T.S Elliot Prize, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry and most notably the Nobel Prize in Literature, just to name a few. Seamus Heaney was born seventy three years ago (in 1939) in Castledawson, County Derry in Northern Ireland. He was the first born in large family, having eight siblings to show for it (McCarthy 9). His father, Patrick Heaney was a cattle trader in Castledawson and most of young Seamus’ childhood was spent in the rural setting. This environment of the countryside, fuelled with other factors would prove to be important, forming an integral part of Seamus’ literary works, especially his poetry. Seamus Heaney attended a local primary school in his native town. At the tender age of twelve years, he won a scholarship to attend St Columb’s College. This was a catholic boarding school, also found within the environs of his native town. During his time at St. Columb’s, he gained further skills that would later help him map out his career. He learnt Latin and Irish languages, a fact that was crucial in his turning out to be a translator. In 1953, his family moved out from his rural County of Derry. However, his thoughts, feelings and aspirations were still strongly entangled with his rural homeland. After St. Columb’s College, the other education pot that Seamus drank from was Queen’s University in Belfast. He graduated with a degree in Literature in 1961 from Queen’s. While there, he studied Anglo-Saxon, another contributor to his translation skills. He was to later on, (1966-1972) come back to lecture at his former school. His writing career o fficially began while he was at Queens. His first works that earned him recognition came about in the 1960s (Buttel, 12). It is at about the same time when he met his wife, Marie Devlin. Marie