Poetry Breaks I, Seamus Heaney Alternative Title: Heaney, Seamus Extent: 1 videocassette of 1 (35 min.) : sd., col. ; 1 in. 1 videocassette of 1 (Betacam SP) (35 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in. 1 videocassette of 1 (VHS) (35 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in. 1 videocassette of 1 (18 min.) : sd., col. ; 3/4 in. 1 videocassette of 1 (35 min.) : sd., col. ; 3/4 in. copy 1 videocassette of 1 (4 min.) : sd., col. ; 3/4 in. 4 videocassettes of 4 (Betacam SP) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in. 4 videocassettes of 4 (VHS) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in. Copyright Date: 1988 Copyright Holder: Leita Hagemann Luchetti and WGBH Educational Foundation Air Date: 1988-present Program Number: 335 Artist: Heaney, Seamus

Background:
Seamus Heaney, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, was born in 1939 in County Derry, Northern Ireland. He is a Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and held the chair of Professor of Poetry at Oxford University from 1989 to 1994. Heaney's past works include eleven books of poetry, three books of criticism, and his version of Sophocles' Philoctetes, The Cure at Troy. His books of poetry include Death of a Naturalist, North Station Island, and The Haw Lantern. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Ploughshares, The New York Review of Books, and Antaeus. A resident of Dublin, Heaney spends part of each year teaching at Harvard University, where he is Ralph Waldo Emerson Poet in Residence.

Two of the Seamus Heaney "Poetry Breaks" spots, "Sonnet III" and "Sonnet V," were selected for broadcast between "Mystery" and "Masterpiece Theatre."

Scope:
Includes a 1" master, Betacam SP preservation master, and VHS and 3/4" screening tapes. 3/4" tapes worktapes exist as well. Betacam SP preservation masters and VHS screening copies of the source tapes exist. "Poetry Breaks" documentation includes shot logs of source tapes, production notes, and correspondence between the producer and the poet.

Seamus Heaney introduces and reads his poems at a Harvard University library. The following poems were edited for broadcast and general distribution, and appear on the master tape with and without "Poetry Breaks" logo and copyright:
"Sonnet III"
"Blackberry-Picking"
"Midterm Break"
"Wedding Day"
"Sonnet V"
"The Railway Children"
"A Kite for Michael and Christopher"
"Song"

Multiple takes of these poems and the following appear on the source tapes of original footage:
"Wishing Tree"
"A Postcard from Iceland"
"The Milk Factory"
"The Guttural Muse"
"Elegy for a Still Born Child"
"Disappearing Island"

Director:
Luchetti, Leita Hagemann

Producer:
Luchetti, Leita Hagemann

Coproducer:
New Television Workshop, WGBH

Performer:
Heaney, Seamus

Subjects:
Poetry


Genre:
Readings

See Also:
Poetry Breaks Documentation

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