Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish [Hardcover]

Seamus Heaney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1984

Sweeney Astray is Seamus Heaney's version of the medieval Irish work Buile Suibne. Its here, Mad Sweeney, undergoes a series of purgatorial adventures after he is cursed by a saint and turned into a bird at the Battle of Moira. Heaney's translation not only restores to us a work of historical and literary importance but offers the genius of one of our greatest living poets to reinforce its claims on the reader of contemporary literature.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 10
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 11
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 14
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Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 49
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 52
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 54
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 56
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 58
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 6
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 61
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 65
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 67
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 69
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 73
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 75
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 8
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 80
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 83
Sweeney Astray [buile Suibhne]: 85
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (May 1, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374272212
• ISBN-13: 978-0374272210
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,891,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent, June 17, 2002

By 

Ilana Teitelbaum - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish (Paperback)

"Sweeney Astray" is a masterpiece on many levels: for the complex weave of its themes to the lyrical quality of its prose--accentuated greatly, of course, by Seamus Heaney's virtuoso translation.

We follow mad Sweeney in his crazed wanderings through the forest and hills, torn within himself by his love of the wild and his incurable loneliness. The tale is presented as chunks of narrative interspersed with segments of poetry, their quiet, melancholy beauty evoking the sounds of windsong and rain.

There is an ethereal quality to this text that makes it difficult to describe. Although it would seem to have a storyline, in reality it is a song, and each "event" a new strain of music. Sweeney's longing for his lost life as a man and king, even as he is unable to stay away from his beloved wilds of Glen Bolcain, illustrate the conflict between the desire for peaceful conformity and for transcendence. This conflict is echoed in the struggle that was ensuing in Ireland even as this work was being written, the struggle between the Celtic religion and the new influx of Christianity.

In this way does "Sweeney Astray" illuminate a historic revolution, while at the same time presenting themes that span eternity.

5.0 out of 5 stars Sweeney Hits Home, December 1, 2007

By 

Josiah Bancroft "Josiah" (Arden, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Heaney's translation of the ancient Irish poem 'Sweeney Astray' miraculously repaints the picture of the warrior king who loses all when he crosses the institutional church. The poem regains some of the magic of the older age and raises the questions of the relationship o church and state, war and spirituality, love and madness, existence and the wrath of God.

Well written - hard to find. I NEVER lend my copy for fear of losing it because I read it every few months

Josiah Bancroft