Seamus Heaney, the Irish poet who honored Harvard’s 350th anniversary celebration with “Villanelle for an Anniversary” and spoke movingly at its Commencement in 2000 of the responsibilities of those within its walls to extend the boundaries of free inquiry, died earlier today in Dublin, The New York Times reported this morning. The Nobel laureate in literature in 1995 and Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory emeritus was 74. A brief history of his many ties to Harvard is now available in The Harvard Gazette.
For more about Heaney, Litt.D. ’98, and his work, touched on briefly in the magazine’s current cover article, “A Nearly Perfect Book,” see these articles from the Harvard Magazine archives:
“Seamus Heaney, Digging with the Pen” (cover article), and “The Poet’s Perspective,” by Adam Kirsch
“Beowulf in the Yard” (a review of his translation of Beowulf, by Daniel Donoghue)
“Beauty, Bounty, Brio, Buoyancy” (on his contribution to the University’s 375th anniversary)
