Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney Irish poet widely considered the greatest of his generation, whose collections "Death of a Naturalist," "North," and "Station Island" draw on his rural Ulster upbringing to explore Irish identity, history, and the natural world. His translation of "Beowulf" became a bestseller. Nobel Prize in Literature 1995. His last words to his wife, sent by text message, were the Latin phrase "Noli timere" — do not be afraid.