ABSTRACT
The most compelling intersection of poetics between Czeslaw Milosz and Seamus Heaney occurs in the process by which they address, artistically, their self-consciousness about poetic responsibilities. This chapter shows that the ways in which Milosz influences Heaney’s sense of responsibility towards his community as the Irish poet strives to ‘credit poetry without anxiety or apology’. Heaney quotes Milosz in his ars poetica poem ‘Away from it All’ and portrays him as a guide in ‘The Master’. Social responsibility permeates Milosz’s poetics. The notion of ‘responsible poetry’ in Milosz’s oeuvre may be discussed from two perspectives: the poetry written during the war as ‘a witness and participant in one of mankind’s major transformations'. Milosz’s essay ‘Ruins and Poetry’ reflects on some of the most enduring principles relating to the role of poetry in the midst of human disintegration. The imaginative needs that attune Heaney to the work of Milosz are very closely related to his own cultural milieu.
