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Opened Ground Paperback – October 25, 1999

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 223 ratings

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As selected by the author, Opened Ground includes the essential work from Heaney's twelve previous books of poetry, as well as new sequences drawn from two of his landmark translations, The Cure at Troy and Sweeney Astray, and several previously uncollected poems. Heaney's voice is like no other--"by turns mythological and journalistic, rural and sophisticated, reminiscent and impatient, stern and yielding, curt and expansive" (Helen Vendler, The New Yorker)--and this is a one-volume testament to the musicality and precision of that voice. The book closes with Heaney's Nobel Lecture: "Crediting Poetry."

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[This collection] eloquently confirms his status as the most skillful and profound poet writing in English today.” ―Edward Mendelson, The New York Times Book Review

“Perhaps the best descriptions of Seamus Heaney's extraordinarily rich and varied oeuvre come from the poet's own work. Mr. Heaney has created a remarkable series of poems that stay 'true to the impact of external reality' while at the same time remaining 'sensitive to the inner laws of the poet's being.'” ―
Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Having just reread most of his poems, I find myself more, not less, interested, and convinced that I have only begun to plumb their bracing depths . . . The poems stay in the mind, which is the one essential feature of major poetry.” ―
Jay Parini, The Nation

“Heaney's commitment to the independence of his art, to the pursuit of shape and richness and abundant ambiguity, is also a profound commitment to the quality of public life . . . In a dark time, Heaney . . . has turned borders and dividing lines into rich frontiers.” ―
Fintan O'Toole, The New York Review of Books

About the Author

Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. His poems, plays, translations, and essays include Opened Ground, Electric Light, Beowulf, The Spirit Level, District and Circle, and Finders Keepers. Robert Lowell praised Heaney as the "most important Irish poet since Yeats."

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Reprint edition (October 25, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374526788
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374526788
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.26 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.45 x 1.2 x 8.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 223 ratings

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4.7 out of 5 stars
223 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the poetry in the book extraordinary and well-grouped. They describe it as wonderful, inspiring, and a great collection of poetry by one of the greatest English poets. The poems are authentic and beautifully expressed, going right to their souls. Readers appreciate the beautiful images that evoke real life. The pacing is described as moving, intense, and exciting. Customers praise the author's hard work and consider this collection his best work.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

24 customers mention "Poetry quality"24 positive0 negative

Customers find the poetry in the book extraordinary and great. They say it's a nice sampling of his work for occasional reading and inspiration. The poetry is grouped appropriately and reads well. Readers appreciate the beautiful words and find the writing meaningful.

"...Heaney is a very special poet, similar in my mind to Yeats and Dylan Thomas, with a Zen Buddhist twist - an underground clearly visible through the..." Read more

"...Every word on the page counts; every word reverberates and shimmers with life, death, and modest negotations with an often hostile political..." Read more

"This volume covers much of Heaney's work and you can trace his progress as a poet and his struggle with..." Read more

"Seamus Heaney is a great poet, in my mind of the Robert Frost type. With Frost, New England came clearly through; with Heaney it is Ireland...." Read more

16 customers mention "Readability"16 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy reading the book. They find it well-written and praise it as a treasure by one of Ireland's greatest poets. The edition is described as excellent, with clean pages and a dust jacket.

"...These are very good...." Read more

"Enjoyable collection to read in the down time. Some works call you to think heavily while others are just a joy!" Read more

"...I got this used, hardback, dust jacket perfect, pages clean and perfect...." Read more

"...A monumental piece of work by greatest of Irish poets." Read more

7 customers mention "Authenticity"7 positive0 negative

Customers find the book authentic and sincere. They say it goes right to their souls with beautifully expressed reality. The book provides inspiration with intertwining symbolism, language play, and richness. Readers appreciate the humility and depth of the work. Overall, they describe the book as an uncompromising tribute to the land and its people.

"...simple, linear, and descriptive on the surface yet with lots of intertwining symbolism, language play and richness working to create a poetic..." Read more

"...Heaney's work is uncompromising and unparalleled in its depth. It can be justly compared to Milosz, or even a Yeats...." Read more

"...He obviously works very hard and is very sincere, but there is something you need, and he don't got it. He is too self-conscious...." Read more

"...this, and I read one or two poems every day or two, and they go right to my soul. Grateful to have this!" Read more

6 customers mention "Beauty"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the poetry beautiful and thought-provoking. They appreciate the Prize acceptance speech and the images that evoke real life and interactions.

"Dazzling and intense works. Good overview of his output...." Read more

"...I highly recommend this anthology. It is beautiful and exciting; Heaney's verse will raise the hair on the back of your neck, as well as electrify..." Read more

"...His images evoke real life and real interaction...." Read more

"Beautiful book and full of extraordinary poetry. I got this used, hardback, dust jacket perfect, pages clean and perfect...." Read more

3 customers mention "Pacing"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the poetry moving and intense. They say it's exciting and will raise hair and spark emotions.

"...I highly recommend this anthology. It is beautiful and exciting; Heaney's verse will raise the hair on the back of your neck, as well as electrify..." Read more

"Some of the most moving and heartfelt poetry from one of the greatest poets of our time. A must read...." Read more

"Dazzling and intense..." Read more

3 customers mention "Works hard"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the author's hard work and sincerity. They find it intense and some of his best work.

"Dazzling and intense works. Good overview of his output...." Read more

"...I love Seamus Heaney's poetry and to me this is some of his best work. It is definitely worth the purchase price." Read more

"...He obviously works very hard and is very sincere, but there is something you need, and he don't got it. He is too self-conscious...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2008
    Dazzling and intense works. Good overview of his output. Although this is not the Collected Poetry of Heaney it does contain almost all his best poems up to 1996, as well as his Nobel Prize acceptance lecture (a gem) and an excerpt from his play Cure a Troy. Heaney is a very special poet, similar in my mind to Yeats and Dylan Thomas, with a Zen Buddhist twist - an underground clearly visible through the influences of the Chinese poet Han Shan "Cold Mountain". For the poems which have exerted an influence on Heaney see: Cold Mountain: Poetry of Han-Shan: A Complete Annotated Translation of Cold Mountain (SUNY Series in Buddhist Studies) Open Ground is an essential contemporary poetry volume. Like Zen poetry Heaney is often very simple, linear, and descriptive on the surface yet with lots of intertwining symbolism, language play and richness working to create a poetic reality true to external reality yet ripping open to a more profound reality in his attempt to "stabilize truth" as Ben Johnson has said. He is also often times very oblique in his simplicity - a challenge to any poetic mind. He is a modern classic. The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain (Mandarin Chinese and English Edition)
    8 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2002
    Heaney is clearly one of the most important literary figures in the world. He is perhaps even the most important writer from Great Britain since Yeats. It's nice to know that an Irishman who speaks for all citizens of the world has been most deservedly honored with a Nobel Prize.
    Heaney is a word-smith. For example, "The Forge" is a sonnet that embraces the scope of poetic creativity and power: "All I know is a door into the dark...."
    Heaney's work is uncompromising and unparalleled in its depth. It can be justly compared to Milosz, or even a Yeats. Heaney is introspective, careful, and most importantly, sincere. Every word on the page counts; every word reverberates and shimmers with life, death, and modest negotations with an often hostile political landscape. His poetic vision is transcendental.
    This anthology includes Heaney's Nobel Prize Speech: "Crediting Poetry," which is incredibly beautiful and thought-provoking. Some of my favorite poetic images are included here, involving blackberries, frogs, funerals, marital meditations, early morning military manuevers, potato peeling, and a mother ironing....
    I highly recommend this anthology. It is beautiful and exciting; Heaney's verse will raise the hair on the back of your neck, as well as electrify your soul.
    19 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2024
    This volume covers much of Heaney's work and you can trace his progress as a poet and his struggle with
    The Troubles in Northern Ireland and his role as an artist and an Irishman.
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2014
    Seamus Heaney is a great poet, in my mind of the Robert Frost type. With Frost, New England came clearly through; with Heaney it is Ireland. His images evoke real life and real interaction. Critical acclaim validates his work far above my ability to comment...but my view may appeal to 'typical' lovers of poetry as opposed to academics. I do not find it easy to read a book of poetry through in daily sittings. I read a few and I wait (quite a while) and I try to read a few more. Patrick Heaney is for those times.
    2 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2012
    Seamus Heaney is one of the very greatest poets writing in English. Google "Limbo, Seamus Heaney" for a taste of his power. You can read a Billy Collins or a Ted Kooser poem, and not very closely at that, and you'll "get it." Heaney demands careful attention. But if you give him that, you'll be richly rewarded whether or not you know what assonance and trochaics are. Digest this very creditable selection and you'll want to rush to the individual volumes.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2018
    From perhaps the greatest poet in the later 20th century, this represents the largest corpus of Heaney’s work. Well known for his immediacy and his portrayal of Irish life, Heaney created completely new word phrases and uses of words to express the elevated delight of poetry. Just imagine the visual imagery created by the phrase: "glitter-drizzle."
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2014
    Seamus Heaney, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, left the world a better place. His death in 2013 was a blow to all who love his work. Opened Ground is a selection of some of his best poetry from 1966 - 1996. This is a volume that will stay by my bedside. It's a volume that should have a place of honor among the books of anyone who truly loves the craft.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2014
    This is one collection of poetry that I felt I "must have" on my Kindle. When I have a few minutes I can pull up Opened Ground and read the next few poems and know I'll have a great poetic experience. I love Seamus Heaney's poetry and to me this is some of his best work. It is definitely worth the purchase price.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Alice
    5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Heaney collection
    Reviewed in Canada on May 8, 2014
    This is my favorite Heaney collection. It was also my textbook for the Heaney class:) This version is better than the one with the white-red cover. I have both of them.
  • S. F.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!
    Reviewed in Germany on December 5, 2013
    Beautiful poems! I totally understand why Heaney got the Nobel Prize in literature. He is amazing at evoking complex concepts through the description of simple things. My favorite poems were probably the bog poems, "Weighing in" and "St. Kevin and the Blackbird."
  • The Book Witch
    5.0 out of 5 stars A selection of the poet's best work
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2013
    I love Seamus Heaney's poetry and I have a few scattered collections - Stations, Death of a Naturalist - but I've recently treated myself to this because it covers most of Seamus' collections, from the first in 1966 right up to The Spirit Level in 1996. This gives a wonderful overview of the development of his work and it also includes his Nobel lecture 'Crediting Poetry'.

    Seamus chose the poems to be included himself, weeding out ones he was no longer happy with and some of the poems were re-written, though the alterations are so minor it's difficult to find any differences.

    All my favourites are there - The Forge, Digging, The Barn, Churning Day, and his prose poem The Stations of the West, which describes how he was sent to the Gaeltacht to learn Gaelic and hoped, perhaps, to learn something of the Celtic mysteries. These visions are denied the child, but there are other kinds of revelation. It ends:

    'Neither did any gift of tongues descend in my days in that upper room when all around me seemed to prophesy. But still I would recall the stations of the west, white sand, hard rock, light ascending like its definition over Ranna-fast and Errigal, Annaghry and Kincasslagh; names portable as altar stones, unleavened elements.'

    Other favourites are the poems about his childhood home, Mossbawn, political poems such as The Ministry of Fear, Oysters, The Skunk - his erotic poem to his wife, peeling potatoes with Mary Heaney in 'Clearances', then the beautiful Postscript, and finally Song -

    'There are the mud-flowers of dialect
    And the immortelles of perfect pitch
    And that moment when the bird sings very close
    To the music of what happens.'

    Yes, that's it exactly - that's what the poetry does. Words like 'big, soft buffetings' that come at you sideways 'And catch the heart off guard and blow it open'.
  • Jeremiah
    5.0 out of 5 stars Efficiient delivery and clear print with good context
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 30, 2024
    As above
  • Mal
    4.0 out of 5 stars hmmm........poetry
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 6, 2013
    I'm not much into poetry but after Heaney's death I saw a few tv programmes about him and thought I should learn more. I'm still no wiser about poetry, I suppose you either get it or you don't. I went to a school in N I where we learnt the English poets, not the Irish, an unbalanced system if ever. Anyway. As one who did the science thing rather than the literature I can say he has an amazing way with words and expression and often builds a tempo that powers the lot along in an engaging way. One has pause to thought. I have marked many poems and will return to them as time and mood permit.