Seamus Heaney
Biography and lesson plans
|Biography and Background|
|"Blackberry Picking"|
|"Casualty"|
|"Digging"|
|"Personal Helicon"|
|Resources for Multiple Poems|
A Biography of Seamus Heaney
Biography and links to related sites.
Poet: Seamus Heaney
Follow the links to 10 online poems.
Seamus Heaney
Brief biography and a discussion of selected poems.
Seamus Heaney
Biography, Heaney's Nobel lecture, poems, and other resources from the Nobel site.
Seamus Heaney
Links to a few poems, bibliography.
Seamus Heaney
Links to online criticism.
Seamus Heaney, Irish Poet
Biography, links to some poems, a gallery of graphics, and related links.
"Blackberry Picking"
Analysis of the poem.
Seamus Heaney
The poet reads "Blackberry Picking." This video is just over 2 minutes long.
The Poetry of Seamus Heaney
Questions for "Blackberry Picking" and "Mid-Term Break." Requires MS-Word or compatible application for access.
Thinking Inductively: A Close Reading of Seamus Heaney's "Blackberry Picking"
This lesson uses "Blackberry Picking" to teach an inductive strategy to unlock meaning. Students work through a 3-step process. Once discussion of the poem is complete, students realize that they have just demonstrated their ability to explicate a poem in order to support a theme statement if asked to write about a poem's meaning.
"Casualty"
Text of the poem. Click on "Poem Guide" for critical analysis and on "About this Poem" for biography.
"Digging"
This online slide presentation/reading of the poem may help students visualize the text.
"Digging"
Text of the poem.
"Digging"
Text of the poem.
"Digging"
Analysis of the poem.
Irish Eyes: Taking a Look at the Past and Present Through a Poem by Seamus Heaney
Students analyze "Personal Helicon" and use the poem as inspiration for an original work. Access requires a word processor.
GCSE Bitesize: Seamus Heaney
Biography, critical commentary, visuals, and suggestions for writing about "Digging," "Perch," and "Storm on the Island."
Seamus Heaney
Commentary and analysis of "Storm on the Island," "Perch," "Blackberry-Picking," "Death of a Naturalist," "Digging," "Mid-Term Break," "Follower," "At a Potato Digging," "The Early Purges," and "The Play Way."
Seamus Heaney
Streaming audio of a lecture about "Singing School: # 4" ("Summer 1969"), "Station Island: VII" ("I had come to the edge of the water") "The Strand at Lough Beg," and "Station Island: VIII" ("Black water. White waves. Furrows snowcapped."). The entire discussion is 41 minutes long.
