News at Eleven: [Seamus Heaney] is not the poet he once was. But

then it would be foolish to expect him to remain the poet of 1975's "North," which brought him widespread fame for his deft handling of the Irish political situation in language that dredged up memories of ancient, tribal violence. In his 12th volume, "Human Chain," the images are not quite so immediate, the tone not quite so tense with politics and history.

Heaney has become something else: a personification of an idea of poetry, a squint-eyed, white-shocked sage.

from Plain Dealer: Poet Seamus Heaney writes 'Human Chain' with a mastery of place and name
then BBC News: Seamus Heaney: 'I live in panic over the next poem'
then The New York Times: Ply the Pen

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