Meg Tyler Publishes Chapter in The Soul Exceeds Its Circumstances
CGS Associate Professor of Humanities Meg Tyler recently published a book chapter and several poems.
The Soul Exceeds Its Circumstances (Notre Dame Press, 2016) examines the later poetry of Seamus Heaney. Professor Tyler’s chapter takes a look at how the pressures of the terror attacks on September 11th affected Heaney’s formal choices. Tyler’s chapter also considers the ways his experience and apprehension of strokes have informed the themes and shapes of his final beautiful poems. Throughout Heaney’s writing life, an image often triggers a series of associations that guide a poem through its rhythms and queries.
Tyler’s takes a closer look at two of Heaney’s works, District and Circle and Human Chain. In District and Circle, almost two- thirds of the poems are sonnets or approximate sonnets. In the introduction to The Soul Exceeds Its Circumstances, editor Eugene O’Brien explains that Heaney’s poem, “A Shiver,” mirrors “the contraction and release of the muscular system,” and Tyler examines how this poem “deconstructs the expectations of such almost physical release.” He continues:
“In Human Chain, on the other hand, none of the poems is fourteen lines long. The absence of the sonnet is pronounced … [Tyler’s] chapter considers the ways in which Heaney’s engagement with and avoidance of the sonnet form has changed over the years.”
Tyler’s busy year continues with the publication of three of her poems in spoKe 4, a poetry annual based in Boston. Be sure to check out The Soul Exceeds Its Circumstances and spoKe 4. For poetry lectures and performances, visit the Poetry Reading Series page.