Station Island (poetry)
Station Island (1984) is a poetry collection by Seamus Heaney, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.
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.
Heaney has been recorded reading this collection on the Seamus Heaney Collected Poems album. He also read from this book during his Saturday morning readings at the Royal Academy during Peter Edward's exhibition.
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
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