Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"The fruits of Peter Mackay's indefatigable research into the uncollected print and broadcast journalism of the young and then almost unknown Seamus Heaney reveal hitherto unguessed depth and detail in the poet's engagement with educational theory and practice, and demonstrate how seriously he took Wordsworth's concern with the influence of early experience on the development of sensibility. This Strange Loneliness goes on to trace with insight and precision the many facets of the Irish poet's lifelong engagement with the intellectual and artistic example of the English precursor he viewed as a fountainhead – it is hardly too much to say the fountainhead – of lyric enterprise." Patrick Crotty, University of Aberdeen and editor of The Penguin Book of Irish Poetry
"This comprehensive and elegantly written book makes an impressive contribution to Heaney criticism and to the study of networks of influence in the post-Romantic archipelago in a wider sense." Review of Irish Studies in Europe
