Reviews

District and Circle by Seamus Heaney

spectracommunist's review against another edition

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4.0

Personification of Hades' underground by modern industrialisation and terrorism. Some of them felt like some real Heavy Metal shit with lot of cast iron, hammers and anvils.

casparb's review against another edition

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Unexpectedly signed & unexpectedly one of my new favourite Heaneys. Fantastic case study of Heaney at his late-stage career best as The poet that knew how to make vowels & consonants speak among themselves. This is a beautiful brilliant collection I adored it mwah

seherina's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

Only Seamus Heaney 

greybeard49's review

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5.0

A rare book, to be savoured.
I really enjoyed the variety of poems in this book - he explores the human condition beautifully in poems about modern urban life and his rural upbringing.
Superb laying out of words and so many ‘killer’ lines and titles.
Read ‘The Lift’ - so typical of Heaney - an Irish woman’s life and death and funeral wonderfully laid out.
One verse - ‘
‘A lifetime, then a death time: reticence
Keeping us together when together,
All declaration deemed outspokenness.’

‘The Helmet’ and ‘Midnight Anvil’. Read them.

ridgewaygirl's review against another edition

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4.0

This is a slim volume of poetry, although my favorite was the few pages in the middle of what the author called Found Prose; beautiful short descriptions. Most of the poetry was about the author's rural Irish childhood, but other poems wanders into the American Midwest or to the London Underground. Lushly descriptive, they evoke time and place more completely than anything I've read, or even a sepia-toned photograph. In Saw Music Heaney describes a busker in a store doorway:

Flop-wobble grace note or high banshee whine.
Rain spat upon his threadbare gabardine,
Into his cap where the occasional tossed coin
Basked on damp lining, the raindrops glittering

aga_acrobat's review against another edition

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5.0

"in an age of bare hands
and cast iron..."

there I was home again
and I can't thank you enough

kittymamers's review

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3.0

ainus asi, mis mulle sellest luulekogust meelde jääb (ja sedagi kui kauaks?), on, et Nobeli laureaat on siin ühes tekstis Eestit maininud.

kõik oli muidu kena lugeda ja tundus kvaliteetse luulena, aga aru ei saanud ma jälle vist suuremast osast.

florismeertens's review

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Ik vind deze bundel moeilijk te beoordelen, vooral vanwege het feit dat ik Heaney ondoordringbaar vind. De beelden die hij oproept zijn me onbekend, en het onderliggende gevoel komt dan niet aan. En dat vind ik jammer.

De veelvuldige verwijzingen naar zijn thuisland en jeugd zorgen enerzijds voor een vertrouwelijke sfeer, maar het voelt anderzijds alsof je het nooit zal begrijpen zoals zij die dat doorleefd hebben. Zijn imposante taalgebruik is voor mij iets te druk, iets te gedetailleerd. Het gebruik van landbouwjargon laat me in het algemeen koud, en hier dus ook.

Ik denk dat deze bundel beter werkt als je er soms een gedicht uit leest, in plaats er in één keer doorheen te spitten. Dat ben ik dus van plan.

Natuurlijk waren er ook mooie passages, zoals in Rilke: The Apple Orchard en The Blackbird of Glanmore, en bovenal de laatste strofe van The Aerodrome.

kalliopekat's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

4.0

justanothersamsmith's review

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3.0

Another fantastic collection from Seamus Heaney. Not my favourite, the spot is still taken by Death of a Naturalist and closely followed by North and Seeing Things, but definitely a solid contender.