Award of Nobel Prize for Literature 1995
Dear Seamus Heaney,
Let me now remind you of your own Declaration of Independence – Poetry can never be reduced to a political, historical or moral issue. In the final resort poetry is its own reality. Ever since Death of a Naturalist I have admired the way in which you turn your back on the systematisers, to defend instead poetic creativity as a free, natural, biological process. We all admire your revealing and compelling images and rhythms, we are gladdened by your quest for sacred wells and the sudden eruption of Beauty. I am happy to convey to you, on behalf of the Swedish Academy, our warmest congratulations on the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1995 and to invite you to receive the Prize from the hands of His Majesty the King.
From the presentation speech by Mr. Östen Sjöstrand, Member of the Swedish Academy
Turf cutting
These men work as partners, one cutting with a special spade, the other, throwing the clods up onto the bank to dry. The lifter has to ensure that the wet sods aren't broken as they are transferred to the bank. In the background, a jacket hangs perhaps on the scraw-cutter used to cut away the heathery scraw in preparation for cutting the turf. Cutting turf is referred to in Digging.