Seamus Heaney : Stephen Burt , who died 1998 , wrote poetry , literary essays , translations . And he will be remembered not for one kind of poetry , but for several : He amazed even attentive admirers as he became , over his long career , in one way the opposite of his early self . 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 .
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 .