谢默斯·希尼是1995年诺贝尔文学奖得主，他为地处北爱尔兰首府贝尔法斯特的母校女王大学带来了荣誉，诗人的母校也以希尼为荣。本书作者作为首位女王大学谢默斯·希尼诗歌研究中心的访问学者，与谢默斯·希尼有过多次思想的碰撞。本书就爱尔兰文化和谢默斯·希尼诗人身份问题进行了深入探讨，具有较高学术价值，值得研究爱尔兰文化的学者参阅。

Introduction Seamus Heaney, the Poet and His Poetic Career

Chapter One Seamus Heaney, an Irish-British Poet

 1.1 Three Different Connotations of Irish

 1.2 Heaney's An Open Letter and His Claim of Being Irish

 1.3 The Greenness of the Irish Passport and Heaney's British/Irish Citizenships

 1.4 Heaney's British/Irish Cultural Identities

 1.5 The Issue of Identity Serving as a Startingpoint

Chapter Two Trajectory of Balance: The Best Way Out Is Through

 2.1 Feminine-Masculine Balance between Irish and British Influences in the 1960s

2.1.1 Masculine British Influences from Hughes, Wordsworth and Hopkins

2.1.2 Feminine Irish Consciousness

 2.2 Vowel-Consonant Balance in the Image of Ireland in the 1970s

2.2.1 Irish Politics in Bog-poems

2.2.2 Irish Culture in Place-poems

2. 2.3 Plight in Vowel-Consonant Marriage

 2.3 Dialect-Adept Balance in Seeing Things since the 1980s

2.3.1 Social and Poetic Responsibilities

2.3.2 The Parochial and the Universal

2.3.3 Re-imagining Inheritance

Chapter Three Formation of Balance: Where All the Voices of the Education Come

 3.1 First Prints by Early Life Experience

3.1.1 Mossbawn.. a Mix of Scot, English and Gaelic Etymology

3.1.2 An Anchor: Home and Early Education

 3.2 Literary/Cultural Leadings and Summons

3.2.1 Heaney and Belfast Group

3.2.2 Heaney and Irish Literary Exemplars

3.2.3 Heaney and Field Day Theatre Company

 3.3 Heaney as a Critic and a Translator

3.3.1 Heaney as a Critic

3.3.2 Heaney as a Translator

Chapter Four Significance of Balance. From Stillness into History

 4.1 In Culture: Between the Homogeneous and the Heterogeneous

 4.2 In Politics: Between Planters and Gaels

Conclusion Revision in Dialogues

Appendix Interviews and News Reports

Bibliography