The Redress of Poetry

“Self-deprecating but delighting . . . a wonderful addition to the Heaney canon—as life-enhancing in its own way as the poems it celebrates.” —Andrew Motion, The Guardian

Nobel Prize–Winning Poet

Heaney's ten lectures as Professor of Poetry at Oxford, collected here in The Redress of Poetry, explore the poetry of a wide range of writers, from Christopher Marlowe to John Clare to Oscar Wilde. Whether he concentrates on moments in the works under discussion, or is concerned to advance his general subject, Heaney's insight and eloquence are themselves of poetic order.

“Heaney’s lectures offer the reader a brimming metaphoric energy, a fine-tuned analytic vocabulary, a buoyant vivacity of description, a reflective humor, an ethical awareness, a capaciousness of mind, and an imaginative penetration that are unequaled in contemporary critical prose.” —Helen Vendler, The New Yorker

“Heaney has the most flexible and beautiful lyric voice of our age, and his prose often answers his poetry in a run of subtle and resonant phrasing, as well as in the witty brilliance of his imagery.” —William Logan, The Washington Post