On a more personal level of inspiration, Heaney cites Polish expatriot poet Czeslaw Milosz, who recently passed away at the age of 93. “He had a great political as well as artistic feel,” he says.

Robert Lowell, one of the most prominent poets of the late 20th century, once called Heaney “the greatest Irish poet since Yeats.” Heaney says the visionary author was himself a necessary informant of his writing. “Yeats is like a mountain range, lying on the horizon. He can’t be emulated; you just walk around under the shade,” he says. Yet in his own work, Heaney has helped bring a good deal of illumination to that immense shadow.

Heaney originally taught for a living. At that point, he thought of his poetry as “more of a pastime” than an actual career.

When he reached his 30s, Heaney says he underwent a crucial transformation, moving back to the Irish country and spent four years concentrating solely on his poetry. “That clinched it,” he says, and so he began the long journey that would bring him into international acclaim as a writer and thinker.

Heaney has been formally affiliated with Harvard since 1982, when he began his fourteen-year tenure as a Visiting Lecturer. The arrangement stipulated that he spend a semester teaching in Cambridge every year.

In 1984, Heaney was elected as the Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, an additional honor. The poet dubs his lectures and speeches his “bread and butter as an academic. That’s how I earn my keep,” he says. He often culls essays for volumes of prose from his addresses.

Beyond the classes and the lectures, Heaney has a continuing affection for Harvard’s scholarly atmosphere. The Poet-in-Residence’s affiliation with Adams House has no doubt contributed to its widespread popularity among speculative first-years, and continues what he calls its long “tradition of artistic and intellectual achievement.” Heaney also has a deep appreciation for such classically Cantabridgian landmarks as Sanders Theatre in Memorial Hall.

After Heaney resigned his teaching position in 1996, then-College President Neil Rudenstine renewed the Ralph Waldo Emerson position in order to preserve a place for Heaney in the bastion of American academia.

According to the terms of the position that among others Lowell and Robert Frost previously held, the poet spends six weeks in Cambridge every other year lecturing and giving readings for a University-wide audience.

Although students cannot now take advantage of Heaney’s poetry workshops or English and American Language and Literature lecture class, many do catch him at student readings and lectures.

Heaney’s most striking characteristic is his depth and precision of personal expression. His ability to fluidly summon up whatever phrase or muse fits the moment betrays an artistic keenness that as a rule, college students are only beginning to acquire.

Put simply, Seamus Heaney inspires the desire to be a better writer and thinker. That alone is worth clearing a calendar to see.