Editing Seamus Heaney (section)

===1985–1999===
{{further|topic=his works during this period|Station Island (poetry)|The Haw Lantern|The Cure at Troy|The Spirit Level (poetry collection)}}
[[File:Heaneys.jpg|thumb|right|Marie and Seamus Heaney at the Dominican Church, [[Kraków]], Poland, 4 October 1996]]
Heaney became a tenured faculty member at Harvard, as the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory (formerly visiting professor) 1985–1997, and the [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] Poet in Residence at Harvard 1998–2006.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101214173915/http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth189 British Council biography of Heaney]. Retrieved 19 April 2010.</ref> In 1986, Heaney received a Litt.D. from [[Bates College]]. His father, Patrick, died in October the same year.<ref name="parker-2212" /> The loss of both parents within two years affected Heaney deeply, and he expressed his grief in poems.<ref name="parker-2212" /> In 1988, a collection of his critical essays, ''The Government of the Tongue'', was published.

In 1985 Heaney wrote the poem "From the Republic of Conscience" at the request of [[Amnesty International]] Ireland. He wanted to "celebrate United Nations Day and the work of Amnesty".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Seamus Heaney, Poet |url=http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/110 |access-date=30 November 2014 |website=Frontline Defenders}}</ref> The poem inspired the title of Amnesty International's highest honour, the [[Ambassador of Conscience Award]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=From the Republic of Conscience |url=http://www.amnesty.ie/RepublicofConscience |access-date=30 November 2014 |publisher=Amnesty International}}</ref>

In 1988 Heaney donated his lecture notes to the Rare Book Library of [[Emory University]] in [[Atlanta]], Georgia, after giving the notable [[Richard Ellmann|Ellmann]] Lectures there.<ref>[http://news.emory.edu/stories/2014/01/er_seamus_heaney_exhibit/campus.html "Seamus Heaney Exhibit"], Emory University, January 2014</ref>

In 1989 Heaney was elected [[Oxford Professor of Poetry]], which he held for a five-year term to 1994. The chair does not require residence in Oxford. Throughout this period, he divided his time between Ireland and the United States. He also continued to give public readings. These events were so well attended and keenly anticipated that those who queued for tickets with such enthusiasm were sometimes dubbed "Heaneyboppers", suggesting an almost [[teenybopper]] fan base.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 October 2008 |title=Heaney 'catches the heart off guard' |url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/10/heaney-%E2%80%98catches-the-heart-off-guard%E2%80%99/ |access-date=15 May 2010 |website=Harvard News Office |publisher=[[Harvard University]] |quote=Over the years, readings by poet Seamus Heaney have been so wildly popular that his fans are called "Heaneyboppers."}}</ref>

In 1990 ''[[The Cure at Troy]]'', a play based on [[Sophocles]]'s ''[[Philoctetes (Sophocles)|Philoctetes]],''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Play Listing |url=http://www.irishplayography.com/search/play.asp?play_id=617 |access-date=24 August 2007 |website=Irish Playography |publisher=Irish Theatre Institute}}</ref> was published. The next year, he published another volume of poetry, ''[[Seeing Things (poetry)|Seeing Things]]'' (1991). Heaney was named an Honorary Patron of the [[University Philosophical Society]], [[Trinity College Dublin]], and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]] (1991).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Royal Society of Literature All Fellows |url=http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305070326/http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows |archive-date=5 March 2010 |access-date=9 August 2010 |publisher=Royal Society of Literature}}</ref>

In 1993 Heaney guest-edited ''[[The Mays]] Anthology'', a collection of new writing from students at the University of Oxford and [[University of Cambridge]]. That same year, he was awarded the [[Dickinson College]] Arts Award and returned to the Pennsylvania college to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree. He was scheduled to return to Dickinson again to receive the Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Award—for a major literary figure—at the time of his death in 2013. Irish poet [[Paul Muldoon]] was named recipient of the award that year, partly in recognition of the close connection between the two poets.

Heaney was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1995 for "works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past".<ref name="nobel_prize">{{Cite web |date=7 October 2010 |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1995 |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1995/ |access-date=7 October 2010 |publisher=Nobelprize}}</ref> He was on holiday in Greece with his wife when the news broke. Neither journalists nor his own children could reach him until he arrived at [[Dublin Airport]] two days later, although an Irish television camera traced him to [[Kalamata]]. Asked how he felt to have his name added to the Irish Nobel pantheon of [[W. B. Yeats]], [[George Bernard Shaw]] and [[Samuel Beckett]], Heaney responded: "It's like being a little foothill at the bottom of a mountain range. You hope you just live up to it. It's extraordinary."<ref name="laureate" /> He and his wife Marie were immediately taken from the airport to [[Áras an Uachtaráin]] for champagne with President [[Mary Robinson]].<ref name="laureate">{{Cite news |last=Clarity |first=James F. |date=9 October 1995 |title=Laureate and Symbol, Heaney Returns Home |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/20/specials/heaney-laureate.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref> He would refer to the prize discreetly as "the N thing" in personal exchanges with others.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Boland |first=Rosita |date=17 June 2017 |title=Michael Longley: 'Being 77 and three-quarters is the best time of my life' |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/michael-longley-being-77-and-three-quarters-is-the-best-time-of-my-life-1.3097831 |access-date=17 June 2017 |work=[[The Irish Times]] |quote='Seamus once thanked me for the way I dealt with what he called 'the N Thing',' Longley says, making tea. 'The N thing?' I ask, halfway through my sardine sandwich. 'The Nobel', he says. 'That I kept it in proportion – the way most of the world didn't. But I have had to be very judicious answering questions about Seamus since he's been turned into a kind of saint'.}}</ref>

Heaney's 1996 collection ''[[The Spirit Level (poetry)|The Spirit Level]]'' won the [[Costa Book Awards|Whitbread Book of the Year Award]]; he repeated the success in 1999 with ''[[Beowulf: A New Verse Translation]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Beowulf: A New Translation |url=http://www.rambles.net/heaney_beowulf.html |access-date=20 November 2010 |publisher=Rambles.net}}</ref>

Heaney was elected a Member of the [[Royal Irish Academy]] in 1996 and was admitted in 1997.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 August 2013 |title=Seamus Heaney MRIA 1939–2013 – A Very Special Academician |url=http://www.ria.ie/News/Seamus-Heaney-MRIA-1939-2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140426202138/http://www.ria.ie/News/Seamus-Heaney-MRIA-1939-2013 |archive-date=26 April 2014 |access-date=8 September 2013 |publisher=ria.ie}}</ref> In the same year, Heaney was elected [[Saoi]] of [[Aosdána]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 August 2013 |title=Seamus Heaney |url=http://aosdana.artscouncil.ie/getdoc/c58ed13b-d56c-4807-8c87-98802d8dd7a9/Heaney.aspx |access-date=8 September 2013 |publisher=aosdána.artscouncil.ie}}</ref> In 1998, Heaney was elected Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Dublin.<ref>{{Cite news |date=17 December 2012 |title=Trinity College Dublin announces new Professorship – Seamus Heaney Professorship in Irish Writing |url=https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/trinity-college-dublin-announces-new-professorship-seamus-heaney-professorship-in-irish-writing/ |work=Trinity College Dublin}}</ref>