Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Front Row

Magazines & Reviews

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.

BBC Radio 4 FM

Front Row: The Work, Life and Legacy of Poet Seamus Heaney

The Work, Life and Legacy of Poet Seamus Heaney

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, The Work, Life and Legacy of Poet Seamus Heaney

On the eve of what would have been his 80th birthday Front Row on poet Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney would have been 80 tomorrow. With poets, scholars, a composer and archive of the man himself Front Row considers the work, life and legacy of this great poet.

Seamus Heaney died in 2013. Had he lived tomorrow would have been his 80th birthday. Heaney was a rare writer - a poet both beloved and respected. He was an eloquent advocate for the place and craft of poetry. Who would have thought Beowulf could be a modern day bestseller? Seamus Heaney's translation was. He made a profound social impact, too, and at the time of the Good Friday Agreement President Clinton memorably quoted  
his lines from 'The Cure at Troy' '...once in a lifetime/ The longed-for tidal wave/ Of justice can rise up,/ And hope and history rhyme.' 

Front Row this evening is devoted to Heaney's work, life and continuing inspiration. Kirsty Lang talks to Leontia Flynn, one of the leading younger writers of the North of Ireland; to his friend the poet Bernard O'Donoghue, who is working on a new edition of Heaney's Collected Poems with Rosie Lavan - from whom we hear, too.  

The composer Mohammed Fairouz explains how he set some of the poems in his piece for choir and viola, 'In a New Light', which will have its European premier performance tomorrow in Bellaghy, where Heaney was born, and is buried.

And, from the BBC's archive, there is the wonderful voice of the poet himself, introducing and reading his work.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Julian May


BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Front Row

The Work, Life and Legacy of Poet Seamus Heaney

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4