Heaney's most famous collection is split into two parts, written when he was young. The second is the one he is often best known for: poems of the Troubles in Northern Ireland that reveal the harsh realities of trying to live in those times. Most of these, and some more nationalist moments in the first part, haven't aged particularly well.

The ones that do work very well are the poems about nature, or those many about the lives of the humans that became bog bodies. These are amazing works that thrum with the voice of a poet who deserved every accolade.