The government of the tongue

"In this thematically coherent book of critical essays selected from his prose writings since 'Preoccupations' (1984), Seamus Heaney scrutinizes the work of several poets, British and Irish, American and European. His subjects exemplify a devotion to the art of poetry that is complicated by their recognition of poetry's apparent indifference or ineffectuality in a world where suffering and injustice are prevalent. Their typical problem arises when they experience the gulf, which is always potentially there, between artistic integrity and other responsibilities, civic and humane. Heaney is also interested in writers' acceptance or rejection of these restraints, implicit or legislated, which societies tend to impose upon freedom of utterance. The book of 'The Government of the Tongue' carries suggestions of both monastic discipline and untrammelled romanticism, and is meant to raise an old question about the rights and status of poetic utterance itself. Should it be governed? Should it be the governor?"