Seamus Heaney And Agha Shahid Ali Analysis

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The present study is a triumph to bring forth the delineation of ideas and impacts of childhood reminiscences and experiences of migration on the poetic stance of an Irish poet Seamus Heaney and a Kashmiri originated American poet Agha Shahid Ali. Seamus Heaney and Agha Shahid Ali belong to culturally, linguistically and geographically different nations, in their works some common themes are found, like they have dealt with the themes of the problems of common people and they have also focused on the miseries and sufferings of a common man because of failure of political setup. Though these themes are very dominant in the works of both these poets, but there is another issue which deserves attention in the works of both these poets and that …show more content…

Seamus Heaney was boarding at St. Columb’s College in Londonderry on a scholarship. Here he had a very good English teacher and began to love reading, absorbing diverse material, from comic books to great literature. While as Agha Shahid Ali studied in Burris School in Muncie, Indiana. The Burris School is affiliated to Ball State University where Ali's father was earning the first Doctorate ever granted by Ball State University as well as the first Doctorate in Education by a Kashmiri. From 1957 until 1961 Heaney studied at Queen’s University in Belfast. It was here that he was impressed by the work of Robert Frost and Ted Hughes and so started writing his own poetry, some of which was published in the school’s literary magazine. He received a degree in English language and literature with first-class honors and moved on to post-graduate work and attaining a teacher’s certificate at St. Joseph’s College of Education in Belfast. Ali studied for a B. A. in the Humanities (1968) at the University of Kashmir; he then went to the University of Delhi for a Master's Degree (1970) in English literature and taught there until 1975. Heaney also taught at St. Thomas’ Secondary school in Belfast in 1962 and was lecturer in English at St. Joseph’s college. From 1961 to 1962, Heaney gained a more extensive understanding of English literature and made his first true venture into …show more content…

While some reviewers criticised Heaney for being an apologist and mythologiser, Morrison suggested that Heaney would never reduce political situations to false simple clarity, and never thought his role should be as a political spokesman. The author "has written poems directly about the Troubles as well as elegies for friends and acquaintances who have died in them; he has tried to discover a historical framework in which to interpret the current unrest; and he has taken on the mantle of public spokesman, someone looked to for comment and guidance," (Morrison 32). "Yet he has also shown signs of deeply resenting this role, defending the right of poets to be private and apolitical, and questioning the extent to which poetry, however 'committed,' can influence the course of history”

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