Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney

To Be Featured in October Poetry Series

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

Lovers of written verse know Harvard’s George Edward Woodberry Poetry Room to be an archival mecca of modern poetry and poetics since its founding in 1931. In addition to its vast international holdings, over a hundred literary periodicals as well as audio and video recordings, monographs, serials and broadsides of 20th and 21st century poetry are housed in the room, which has been located on the fifth floor of Lamont Library since 1949. Earlier publications are recataloged, and transferred to adjacent Widener Library.

Such literary gold is carefully maintained in the room originally designed by Finnish modernist architect Alvar Aalto. Poetry seekers who are not faculty, staff, students, alumni or affiliates of Harvard can access the collection but are not allowed to borrow materials.

The Woodberry Poetry Room also holds a series of free poetry readings and related events which are open to the public. Each is generally held at nearby Jefferson Lecture Hall in Room J-250.

This fall’s slate is rich. Nobel Prize in Literature recipient and Visiting Poet Seamus Heaney will participate in a three-part poetry series, "Talking Shop.” On Oct. 3, the theme was "Sixth Sense, Seventh Heaven: How some poems got written." On Oct. 15 at 8 p.m., a poetry reading will be featured, and on Oct. 22, the topic will be "Staying Power: How - and why - some poems got translated."

Heaney is the Ralph Waldo Emerson Poet in Residence at Harvard every other year for approximately six weeks, during which he makes himself readily available. “At the time he is in residence,” explained Heaney’s assistant Cindy Fallows, “he gives several public talks, the number of which dependent on his schedule and other university-related activities.”

Heaney, born in April 1939, grew up in rural County Derry, where much of his poetry is grounded. He attended St. Columb’s College and Queen’s University and was involved with the theatre company Field Day for many years. His wife Marie is also a poet and author; they have three children. He has received many honorary degrees, is a member of Aosdana, the Irish academy of artists and writers, and a Foreign Member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Following his 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, he was made a Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. He is the author of myriad volumes of Poetry as well as Prose, Essays and Drama, and has been the subject of numerous critical studies as well.

Fallows exemplified how Heaney spends his time during a typical residency. “In addition to giving lectures,” she said, “he may talk to Helen Vendler's class on his poetry, attend one of the Medievalist's weekly luncheons, read for a class on Beowulf taught by Dan Donoghue, or share poetry with Jorie Graham or Peter Sacks’ classrooms.”

His contributions may be nearly improvisational. According to Fallows, he writes his talks off the cuff, sometimes on the same morning. “He has some idea of what he will present before he arrives, as he titles the talks ahead of time,” she said. “But I am not sure that he knows all until he is at the podium.” The talks are informal, though academic. He also makes meets with students by appointment.

Prior to the Nobel distinction, Heaney taught regularly at Harvard as the Boylston Professor of Oratory and Rhetoric.“Harvard is a familiar community,” said Fallows, “in which he stills plays a major role.”

Upcoming events in the series include on Oct. 16, author Geoffrey Hill at 7 p.m. at the Edison and Newman Room at Houghton Library, and on Nov. 7, Yale Review editor, poet and critic J.D. McClatchy at 5:30 p.m. in the Thompson Room at Barker Center. This spring, dates will include Poetics Journal co-editor and author Lyn Hejinian on March 26 and Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize recipient Fanny Howe on April 24.

For more information, contact the Poetry Room at 617-495-2454 or e-mail Curator Don Share at share@fas.harvard.edu.