Seamus Heaney : Stephen Burt , who died 1998 , wrote poetry , literary essays , translations . His early works were of earth , and of the Troubles ; he found fame writing about divided land . He says later he went south , wrote of civic , family life , dead friends , embraced the numinous . Burt : He became perhaps the most popular serious poet writing in English anywhere .
Stephen Burt : Seamus Heaney , who died Friday , wrote poetry , literary essays , translations . His early works were of earth , and of the Troubles ; he found fame writing about divided land . He says later he went south , wrote of civic , family life , dead friends , embraced the numinous . Burt : He became perhaps the most popular serious poet writing in English anywhere .