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Seamus Heaney: Poetry, Place, and Legacy with Jennifer Carbery

Seamus Heaney: Poetry, Place, and Legacy with Jennifer Carbery


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

Noble Laureate, Harvard lecturer, civil rights activist, husband, and father: Seamus Heaney’s recent popularity sprung from a quote used by the current President Biden in his electoral campaign. This seminar will explore the life of a man who is a master of words that resonate with the intellectual as much as the everyman. Join a local Irish expert as we peek into his life, the places that influenced his works, and his legacy. 
Seamus Heaney’s life reflects his poetry as much as his poetry reflects his life. In our time together, we will explore his life and the places that profoundly influenced his words as we shed light on this celebrated Poet Laureate. We’ll learn about the farming tradition in which he grew up, the period of conflict ‘The Troubles’ in which he found himself as a young man submerged in and a Sandymount in Dublin where he married and raised his family. None could deny that Heaney’s words are embedded in the environment in which he inhabits, place, landscape, nature, and man’s contact with nature encompass much of Heaney’s writings. We’ll discuss the themes he participates in such as, love, dignity, respect, and power. 
Led by historian Jennifer Carbery, this interactive seminar will explore the influential places, Dublin, Belfast, Derry, and Down, which helped shape his words and are emblematic of what is now Heaney’s Ireland. Designed to inform curiosity and future travels, participants will emerge with a deeper knowledge of Seamus Heaney’s life, place, and legacy. 

Jennifer works with historical research around Ireland's complex history. She studied Anthropology and History as a mature student and upon completion she worked in Archaeology; digging the land for treasure. She has her own business providing research and content for historic sites, events, and radio. She teaches, assesses, and trains students, guides, and learners in history. She has written several apps for tours within Ireland.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 9 reviews
78%
(7)
11%
(1)
0%
(0)
11%
(1)
0%
(0)
N
Nancy (Brooklyn, US)
A poet with respect for civil rights and love for his wife

Jennifer Carbery presents us with a well-crafted lecture; almost cinematic, filled with events and photos, not unlike a documentary film. It is a lecture about a poet who is also a national hero, delivered in a gentle, informative manner -- but there is nothing casual about it. I sense the steely determination of a superb scholar bent on delivering the facts -- a scholar with a huge respect for her subject, but refuses to cut him any slack.

The title of this lecture is carefully chosen, I suspect: poetry, place and legacy -- and that is exactly what we get, but there is geology, geography, language, heritage, and family wrapped in as well. Carbery does not turn away from the sinister side. A silent subtitle might be circumstance: a murdered cousin, protests in Norther Ireland, dead bodies buried in the bog. Nor circumstance of best kind: opportunity and good luck, marriage to a supportive wife. The history, aka life's events, portion is sort of a bonus and this is where Carbery, historian that she is, supplies dates, and calls the moment by name. This is one of the best lectures I've attended. It has been a pleasure to reread my notes. I cannot wait to revisit the experience by viewing the recording.

E
Emily Stevens (Charlotte, US)
Wonderful Deep Dive into Seamus Heaney Poems

Jennifer really gave the full context of Seamus Heaney: his personal history, the social surroundings, and his achievements. She included many of his poems and also integrated some beautiful videos of his readings and readings by others. We were all touched, some moved to tears.

A
Anonymous (Orinda, US)

Guest did not leave comment

S
Susan McG (Brooklyn, US)
Easter Sunday with Seamus Heaney

Dr. Carbery offered a very moving reflection on the life and poetry of Seamus Heaney. She read many of his poems and offered context behind the significance of the poems and what was happening with Heaney and Northern Ireland at the time. Wonderfully knowledgable and very touching seminar. Thank you!

J
Joan DeRosa (East Setauket, US)
Getting Into the Swing of It

I must admit I wasn't sure I was going to go with it, at the beginning. Then I decided to get back and try again, and I am so glad I did. Maybe it was the pace, or the lack of a visual of the poem words, but in the end, it was a delightful, insightful, and informative and personal presentation of a poet whose poems I have enjoyed for years. I felt I was meeting him all over again. Can't think of anything more delightful. Thank you, Jenny!
I am the woman, who, when watching your Dublin presentation mentioned witnessing the Viking Dig back in 1981. You brought that all back then, too.

Customer Reviews

Based on 9 reviews
78%
(7)
11%
(1)
0%
(0)
11%
(1)
0%
(0)
N
Nancy (Brooklyn, US)
A poet with respect for civil rights and love for his wife

Jennifer Carbery presents us with a well-crafted lecture; almost cinematic, filled with events and photos, not unlike a documentary film. It is a lecture about a poet who is also a national hero, delivered in a gentle, informative manner -- but there is nothing casual about it. I sense the steely determination of a superb scholar bent on delivering the facts -- a scholar with a huge respect for her subject, but refuses to cut him any slack.

The title of this lecture is carefully chosen, I suspect: poetry, place and legacy -- and that is exactly what we get, but there is geology, geography, language, heritage, and family wrapped in as well. Carbery does not turn away from the sinister side. A silent subtitle might be circumstance: a murdered cousin, protests in Norther Ireland, dead bodies buried in the bog. Nor circumstance of best kind: opportunity and good luck, marriage to a supportive wife. The history, aka life's events, portion is sort of a bonus and this is where Carbery, historian that she is, supplies dates, and calls the moment by name. This is one of the best lectures I've attended. It has been a pleasure to reread my notes. I cannot wait to revisit the experience by viewing the recording.

E
Emily Stevens (Charlotte, US)
Wonderful Deep Dive into Seamus Heaney Poems

Jennifer really gave the full context of Seamus Heaney: his personal history, the social surroundings, and his achievements. She included many of his poems and also integrated some beautiful videos of his readings and readings by others. We were all touched, some moved to tears.

A
Anonymous (Orinda, US)

Guest did not leave comment

S
Susan McG (Brooklyn, US)
Easter Sunday with Seamus Heaney

Dr. Carbery offered a very moving reflection on the life and poetry of Seamus Heaney. She read many of his poems and offered context behind the significance of the poems and what was happening with Heaney and Northern Ireland at the time. Wonderfully knowledgable and very touching seminar. Thank you!

J
Joan DeRosa (East Setauket, US)
Getting Into the Swing of It

I must admit I wasn't sure I was going to go with it, at the beginning. Then I decided to get back and try again, and I am so glad I did. Maybe it was the pace, or the lack of a visual of the poem words, but in the end, it was a delightful, insightful, and informative and personal presentation of a poet whose poems I have enjoyed for years. I felt I was meeting him all over again. Can't think of anything more delightful. Thank you, Jenny!
I am the woman, who, when watching your Dublin presentation mentioned witnessing the Viking Dig back in 1981. You brought that all back then, too.