The Ecological Concern In Seamus Heaney’s Poems

Awarded with the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature, Seamus Heaney is assessed by Robert Lowell that in the twentieth century only Yeats ranks ahead of Heaney in talent and achievement. It seems that it is no longer essential to introduce Seamus Heaney, as a leading poet, when discussing his works. His creation can both please the general reader but also arouse the academic interest and high praise of literary critics. Heaney instills his unique childhood memory and life experience in poetic creation, providing a deep understanding of life by employing simple and usual things. This thesis is designed to interpret Heaney"s poetry from the ecological aspects of nature, society and human spirit. Heaney was more than a poet of countryside as he was usually considered, but he was more concerned about the outside world instead of just focusing on Irish "field work"With Heaney’s poems from 1960s to 1990s as the target, this thesis aims to explore the source of Heaney’s ecological concern, the troubles he mentioned in poetry and the pursuit of an ecological ideal. The thesis is divided into five parts:the first part introduces the research background including Heaney and his poetry and literature review on Heaney study; Chapter one explores the reasons why Heaney has ecological concern, and Chapter two points out that Heaney discovered the ecological troubles in natural and society environment. Chapter three is an analysis that Heaney provides his own ecological pursuit in poetic creation. The last part is a further analysis of Heaney’s ecological concern and a full summary of the above chapters, with the conclusion that Heaney is a serious ecological poet concerned about both nature and society.