Reviews for Gardens and grim ravines

The average rating for Gardens and grim ravines based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-10-02 00:00:00 Cassandra Dabor La experiencia me ha mostrado que hay que tener cuidado con los poetas que se meten de ensayistas, sin embargo aquí, en esta antología de trabajos en prosa, el poeta irlandés Seamus Heaney (Premio Nobel de Literatura 1995) se centra en un nutrido conjunto de reseñas aderezadas aquí y allá con unos poquísimos esbozos autobiográficos, varias conferencias y crítica literaria, lo que nos planta de entrada en territorio seguro. Es un deleite tener este volumen a mano para entender mejor la estética de la poesía inglesa de la mitad del s. XX, comparando las diversas soluciones que a problemas de estilo, prosodia, lenguaje, y carácter dieron algunos de los poetas más importantes en lengua inglesa —¡y todo yendo de la mano con un autor que ama el lenguaje y no busca atraerse los reflectores para hacernos mirar a sus propias respuestas! John Keats, William Wordsworth, W. B. Yeats, Ted Hughes, y Philip Larkin, por mencionar solo algunos, son diseccionados cuidadosa e inteligentemente bajo el escrutinio de Heaney a lo largo de más de 200 páginas de una prosa brillante, esmerada, casi perfecta y que está lejos de la crítica automática que inunda los suplementos literarios y muchas publicaciones electrónicas. Este libro es, en pocas palabras, una auténtica delicia y, parafraseando al poeta John Montague que lo reseñó para The Guardian, es como un pase de visita al taller poético de su autor. Imperdible.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-04-11 00:00:00 Shicong Li This book of Heaney's prose was a marvellous second-hand bookshop find. Heaney's prose is every bit as good as his poetry. There was great variety in the pieces, ranging from the autobiographical/personal essays of the first section, through his more detailed lectures on particular poets or aspects of poetry, through to a final section of reviews written for various publications. Of the personal pieces, his Mossbawn about his childhood had all the appeal of Dylan Thomas' writings about his childhood, but with a much greater clarity and precision to them. This was a delight to read and to read again. His lectures on poets gave great insights into both the poets he wrote of and into his own writings. For instance he made brilliantly clear the difference between the poetic methods of Wordsworth & Yeats. Wordsworth as a master of 'composition as listening, a wise passiveness', whereas Yeats method is characterized 'not by compliance but control'. This sums up beautifully the contrast, and highlights a tension between these approaches to be found in Heaney's own work. He is extremely good at the old 'compare & contrast' game. For instance in discussing the work of Kavanagh & Montague he says: "...both ... look and listen with intensity inside their parishes, their eyes and ears pick up different things ... Kavanagh's place-names are there to stake out a personal landscape, they declare one man's experience ... Montague's are rather sounding lines, rods to plumb the depth of a shared and diminished culture." With the chosen samples of their work, he make you want to rush to read both their work + getting back to Heaney's own poetry even more quickly. His reviews show a great ability to make fair judgements of other poets work, but spiced with the humourous and provocative comments that make them great fun to read. One or two examples: Hugh MacDiarmid: "In attempting the poetry of ideas ... can write like a lunatic lexicographer." Stevie Smith: "Looked at the world with a mental squint, there is a disconcerting wobble in the mirror she holds." Yet in each case he balances these little thrusts with an appreciation of their strengths. I loved his piece "The labourer & the Lord". His summing up of Lord Dunsany was as succinct and acerbic, as it was entertaining: "His capacity for self-aggrandizement was immense, his inclination to self-scrutiny nil. There was charm (Kipling was fond of him), kindness (he managed Ledwidge's publications and helped him with money) and boorishness: an overbearing sense of himself as the cynosure of neighbouring eyes. Even when there were no eyes to see, he behaved dramatically." It makes me want to go away and read more about the man - he promises great entertainment value. Much more importantly, his appreciations of, and enthusiasms, for other poets - John hewitt, Osip Mandlestam, Robert Lowell and others, was infectious and made me keen to become better acquainted with their work too. All in all he greatly increased the 'To read' list.