Seamus Heaney is widely known as one of the most significant and influential poets of the 20th century. He was the first of nine children, born on the 13th of April, 1939, in County Derry in Northern Ireland. His father was a farmer and a cattle dealer, while his mother's side of the family mostly worked in a local linen mill. As an eleven-year-old, Heaney won a scholarship to St. Columb's College. During his time at that school, one of his younger brothers was killed in an automobile accident. In 1957 he traveled to Belfast to study English at Queen's University Belfast, where he wrote poems that appeared in the school's literary magazines. He earned a teacher's certificate in English...
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