Sweeney Astray

Last updated

Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish
SweeneyAstray.jpg
First edition
Author Seamus Heaney
CountryIreland
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Field Day Publications, Derry/Dublin [1]
Publication date
1983-11-01 [1]
Pages85
ISBN 0-946755-03-5
OCLC 11339072
821/.914 19
LC Class PR6058.E2 S9 1984b

Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish is a version of the Irish poem Buile Shuibhne written by Seamus Heaney, based on an earlier translation by J.G. O'Keeffe. [2] [3] The work was first published in 1983 and won the 1985 PEN Translation Prize for verse, the first year the prize was awarded as such. Photographer Rachel Giese later took revised portions of the poem to accompany a collection of her photos titled Sweeney's Flight. [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seamus Heaney</span> Irish poet, playwright, and translator (1939–2013)

Seamus Justin Heaney was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is Death of a Naturalist (1966), his first major published volume. Heaney was and is still recognised as one of the principal contributors to poetry in Ireland during his lifetime. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland, have said that he was "the greatest poet of our age". Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller." Upon his death in 2013, The Independent described him as "probably the best-known poet in the world".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Joyce</span> Irish poet (born 1947)

Trevor Joyce is an Irish poet, born in Dublin.

Richard Kerr Murphy was an Anglo-Irish poet.

Ciaran Gerard Carson was a Northern Ireland-born poet and novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hallaig</span>

Hallaig is the most recognized poem of Sorley MacLean, an important Scottish poet of the 20th century. After writing it, MacLean rose to fame in the English-speaking world. It was originally written in Scottish Gaelic since the author was born on the island of Raasay, where Scottish Gaelic was the everyday language. During the course of time the poem has been translated into both English and Lowland Scots. A recent translation (2002) was made by Seamus Heaney, an Irish Nobel Prize winner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medbh McGuckian</span> Poet from Northern Ireland (born 1950)

Medbh McGuckian is a poet from Northern Ireland.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

<i>District and Circle</i>

District and Circle is a poetry collection by Seamus Heaney, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. It was published in 2006 and won the 2006 T. S. Eliot Prize, the most prestigious poetry award in the UK. The collection also won the Irish Times "Poetry Now Award".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pangur Bán</span> 9th century Irish poem

"Pangur Bán" is an Old Irish poem, written in about the 9th century at or near Reichenau Abbey, in what is now Germany, by an Irish monk about his cat. Pangur Bán, 'White Pangur', is the cat's name, Pangur possibly meaning 'a fuller'. Although the poem is anonymous, it bears similarities to the poetry of Sedulius Scottus, prompting speculation that he is the author. In eight verses of four lines each, the author compares the cat's happy hunting with his own scholarly pursuits.

Bernard O'Donoghue FRSL is a contemporary Irish poet and academic.

<i>Wintering Out</i>

Wintering Out (1972) is a poetry collection by Seamus Heaney, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

<i>North</i> (poetry collection) 1975 poetry collection by Seamus Heaney

North (1975) is a collection of poems written by Seamus Heaney, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. It was the first of his works that directly dealt with the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and it looks frequently to the past for images and symbols relevant to the violence and political unrest of that time. Heaney has been recorded reading this collection on the Seamus Heaney Collected Poems album.

<i>Station Island</i> (poetry collection)

Station Island is the sixth collection of original poetry written by the Northern Irish poet Seamus Heaney, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. It is dedicated to the Northern Irish playwright Brian Friel. The collection was first published in the UK and Ireland in 1984 by Faber & Faber and was then published in America by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1985. Seamus Heaney has been recorded reading this collection on the Seamus Heaney Collected Poems album.

<i>The Spirit Level</i> (poetry collection) 1996 poetry collection by Seamus Heaney

The Spirit Level is a 1996 poetry collection written by Seamus Heaney, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. It won the poetry prize for the 1996 Whitbread Awards.

<i>New Selected Poems 1966–1987</i>

New Selected Poems 1966–1987 is a poetry collection by Seamus Heaney, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. It was published in 1990 by Faber and Faber. It includes selections from each of Heaney's seven first volumes of verse:

<i>The Cure at Troy</i> Verse adaptation by Seamus Heaney of Sophocles play Philoctetes

The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes is a verse adaptation by Seamus Heaney of Sophocles' play Philoctetes. It was first published in 1991. The story comes from one of the myths relating to the Trojan War. It is dedicated in memory of poet and translator Robert Fitzgerald.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Literature of Northern Ireland</span>

That part of the United Kingdom called Northern Ireland was created in 1922, with the partition of the island of Ireland. The majority of the population of Northern Ireland wanted to remain within the United Kingdom. Most of these were the Protestant descendants of colonists from Great Britain.

<i>Beowulf: A New Verse Translation</i> Translation of Beowulf by Seamus Heaney

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation is a verse translation of the Old English epic poem Beowulf into modern English by the Irish poet and playwright Seamus Heaney. It was published in 1999 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and Faber and Faber, and won that year's Whitbread Book of the Year Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Air ship of Clonmacnoise</span>

The air ship of Clonmacnoise is the subject of a historical anecdote related in numerous medieval sources. Though the original report, in the Irish annals, simply mentioned an apparition of ships with their crews in the sky over Ireland in the 740s, later accounts through the Middle Ages progressively expanded on this with picturesque details. First the ships were reduced to one ship over Teltown from which a crewman threw and then recovered a fishing-spear. Then the scene shifted to the abbey of Clonmacnoise, and later to Britain, and the fishing-spear was changed to an anchor which snagged on some feature of a church. The sailor who climbed down to release it was also said to be in danger of drowning in the thicker air of this lower world. The story was retold by Seamus Heaney in a well-known poem collected in his 1991 volume, Seeing Things.

References

  1. 1 2 Saunders, Emma (2010). "Field Day Papers" (PDF). National Library of Ireland. p. 81. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  2. John, Brian (December 1985). "Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish by Seamus Heaney; Station Island by Seamus Heaney; Hailstones by Seamus Heaney". The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies. 11 (2): 89–91. doi:10.2307/25512647. JSTOR   25512647.
  3. Downum, Denell (Fall–Winter 2009). "Sweeney Astray: The Other in Oneself". Éire-Ireland. 44 (3 & 4): 75–93. doi:10.1353/eir.0.0050. S2CID   162015621 . Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  4. McCarthy, Conor (2008). Seamus Heaney and Medieval Poetry. DS Brewer. p. 8. ISBN   9781843841418 . Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  5. Potts, Donna L. (2011). Contemporary Irish Poetry and the Pastoral Tradition . University of Missouri. pp.  63–64. ISBN   9780826219435 . Retrieved 5 December 2014. Sweeney's Flight.