Critics of Heaney


Critics have engaged in literary discussions of Heaney’s political symbolism in his poetry, writing on the idea of Heaney’s poetry glamorising the political violence in Northern Ireland and having a one-sided approach to the conflict. Edna Longley writes of the ‘introverted’ Catholic and Nationalist terms of the poem ‘Kinship’ in Heaney’s collection of ‘North’(Heaney, 1966) in her essay “Poetry and Politics in Northern Ireland” (Longley, 1985.) Longley believes that poetry and politics shouldn’t intertwine and should remain separate whilst expressing that “Ulster poets today are sometimes the victims of improper 'expectations'” but “This does not let the poet off of particular 'responsibility' towards political events. (Longley, 1985) Longley implies that ‘Ulster poets’ should strive for ‘complete truth’ within their poetry and take no political sides to maintain their social responsibilities as a poet.

 

Similarly, critic Conor Cruise O’Brien states that politics and literature are an “unhealthy intersection” that can result in “bad politics...bad literature and bad poetry which in a vicious cycle breeds bad politics” (O’Brien, 1975 Whilst Neil Corcoran describes ‘North’ (Heaney, 1966) as being ‘necessary poems’ that ‘articulate elements of resentment at the bottom of the republican-nationalist psyche...’ done ‘oppressively.’ (Corcoran, 1999)

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