Seamus Heaney and the Emblems of Hope

A rich body of mythology and literature has grown around the Celtic ritual known as the "Feis" of Tara or "marriage of sovereignty"--ancient ceremonies in which the future king pledges to care for the land and serve the goddess of sovereignty. Seamus Heaney has engaged this symbolic tradition in some of his most significant--and controversial--work. An impeccably researched and immensely readable work, "Seamus Heaney and the Emblems of Hope" reveals that Heaney's poetry offers a reverence for archetypal femininity and Dionysian energy that can counter the sterility and violence of postcolonial Irish life. In the tradition of poets who preceded him, Heaney turns to the marriage of sovereignty to encode a message for our times--and to offer up emblems of hope on behalf of us all.