Review by Booklist Review
In his first book of poems since being awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in literature, Heaney evinces the sort of wisdom one would hope for in a man devoted to keen observation and lyrical interpretation, that is, a feeling of peace. In many of these magnificently orotund intonations, he expresses his intimacy with the specifics of earth and its forces, its mysteries and sensual textures. Life is "omnipresent, imperturbable," and we should learn to distill simple pleasures from its complexity. But such calm and wonder cannot always be maintained, the bubble in the spirit level will not always hover at the desired center. No, there are darker forms of knowing, and while Heaney writes of sunlight and mint, of happy boyhood moments, he also sees a world splashed with blood and gritted with windblown ash. Heaney navigates skillfully from the personal to the universal, from life to death, seeking that precious equilibrium that only poetry can possess. --Donna Seaman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
As the title suggests, this new collection from the 1995 winner of the Nobel Prize is a study in balance. Heaney reveals how simple things, such as a thimble or a swing, can hold the weight of history-and how history can alter the emotional weight of an object. "Two Lorries" takes the romantic innocence of a coalman's truck, circa 1940, with its driver who stops to flirt with the poet's mother, and measures it against a present-day "heavier, deadlier one, set to explode." Meanwhile, the poems revel in wordplay. A favorite tactic is the repetition of words within a lines or stanzas, which can yield such simplicity as in "Bisected sunlight in the sunlit yard," or be as savvy as a politico's speech: "Like the disregarded ones we turned against/ Because we'd failed them by our disregard." Heaney, at the peak of his career, is the fulcrum of two Irelands: one that is lyrical and lush with tradition and love; another that is ticking and could "catch the heart off guard and blow it open." (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Heaney's first after winning the Nobel Prize in 1995. For more, see "Seamus Heaney: Joining the Chorus of Immortals," LJ 11/1/95. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
YA-This collection by the 1995 Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet concerns itself with balance. "Weighing In" expresses this principle through the concrete image of a 56-pound weight, in the abstract "principle of bearing, bearing up and bearing out, just having to balance the intolerable in others against our own," and many of the poems continue to explore this theme. Nothing is totally one thing or another but a balance, a middle ground. The poems may seem simple at first, but as readers peel away the surface meaning they'll find layers of deep and penetrating insights into everyday life. Irish references and idiom abound but should not deter YAs from grasping a wider meaning from each of the 35 poems with each successive reading. Several of the selections reflect the tension in Northern Ireland as in "Two Lorries" or patriotism as in "An Invocation." This volume is a must for any high school library that strives to be comprehensive and of top quality.-Dottie Kraft, formerly at Fairfax County Public Schools, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by School Library Journal Review
