On The Death of Seamus Heaney, 1939 – 2013

As many of you may know, Seamus Heaney, the greatest Irish poet since W.B. Yeats, passed away in Dublin Friday morning, August 30, at the age of 74. His funeral mass took place in Dublin, September 2nd. Later that day he was buried in his native County Derry, beside his brother Christopher, whose memory he immortalized in one of his most beloved poems, Midterm Break. Like the arrival of news of any death, Seamus's death was greeted with shock and then, of course, profound sadness. The sense of sadness is not just particular to Ireland, however. Indeed, our own Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star both have extensive articles on the death of Seamus Heaney....