Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet, playwright, translator and lecturer. Between 1989 and 1994 he was the Professor of Poetry at Oxford University and he went on the receive the nobel prize in Literature a year later in 1995. Many writers have called him the 'greatest poet of our time' with Robert Pinksy saying "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller". After his death last year, the Independent called him the 'best known poet in the world'.