Station Island (poetry)
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Station Island (1984) is a collection of poems written by Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney.
The title refers to Station Island in Donegal, Ireland, a famous site of pilgrimage from the Middle Ages to the present day. The collection is thematically concerned with the quest for self-identity, whether spiritual, socio-political, or vocational.
The second section, also entitled 'Station Island', is an autobiographical account of Heaney's second journey to the island. Here he considers the purpose and power of a poet's occupation, especially in regards to how he or she might speak to political issues- in his case, The Troubles in Northern Ireland in particular.
The third section, 'Sweeney Redivivus', was stimulated by Heaney's work on the medieval Irish poem Buile Shuibhne ('The Madness of Sweeney'), a translation of which he published under the title Sweeney Astray in 1983.
[edit] Contents
Part One
- The Underground
- La Toilette
- Sloe Gin
- Away from it All
- Chekhov on Sakhalin
- Sandstone Keepsake
- Shelf Life
- A Migration
- Last Look
- Remembering Malibu
- Making Strange
- The Birthplace
- Changes
- An Ulster Twilight
- A Bat on the Road
- A Hazel Stick for Catherine Ann
- A Kite for Michael and Christopher
- The Railway Children
- Sweetpea
- An Aisling in the Burren
- Widgeon
- Sheelagh na Gig
- The Loaning
- The Sandpit
- The King of the Ditchbacks
Part Two: Station Island
- Station Island
Part Three: Sweeney Redivivus
- The First Gloss
- Sweeney Redivivus
- Unwinding
- In the Beech
- The First Kingdom
- The First Flight
- Drifting Off
- Alerted
- The Cleric
- The Hermit
- The Master
- The Scribes
- A Waking Dream
- In the Chestnut Tree
- Sweeney's Returns
- Holly
- An Artist
- The Old Icons
- In Illo Tempore
- On the Road
