Political Poems: ‘Station Island’ by Seamus Heaney

As an undergraduate, Seamus Heaney visited Station Island several times, an ancient pilgrimage site traditionally associated with St Patrick and purgatory. Decades later, Heaney worked through competing calls for political engagement and his long-lapsed Catholicism in ‘Station Island’, a poem he described as an ‘exorcism’. A dreamlike reworking of Dante’s Purgatorio, ‘Station Island’ describes Heaney’s encounters with the ghosts of childhood acquaintances, literary heroes and victims of the Troubles. Seamus and Mark explore Heaney’s unusually autobiographical poem, which wrestles with the inescapability of politics. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4dbjbjG In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings  Further reading in the LRB: Paul Muldoon: Sweaney Peregraine https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v06/n20/paul-muldoon/sweaney-peregraine Seamus Perry: We Did and We Didn’t https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n09/seamus-perry/we-did-and-we-didn-t John Kerrigan: Hand and Foot https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v21/n11/john-kerrigan/hand-and-foot Get in touch: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices