Opened Ground. Poems 1966–1996.

Limited first edition. Thick 8vo. Pp. xiii-[xiv], 478. Quarter-bound black cloth over fawn paper-covered boards; white paper label printed in brown to spine. Author's Note, Index of Titles & Index of First Lines. The limited first edition, as issued, without dustjacket, in matching slipcase. #157/300 numbered copies (out of a total issue of 325), signed by Heaney on the limitation page.

'As close to being a "Collected Poems" as this Nobel Prize-winning poet cares to make it.' It includes selections from Heaney's twelve previous books of poetry, as well as sequences drawn from his landmark translations, The Cure at Troy and Sweeney Astray. The book concludes with 'Crediting Poetry', his acceptance speech of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded to him, (in the words of the Swedish Academy of Letters), for his "works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth."

[Brandes & Durkan A70a]