It is my opinion that this book, Stepping Stones, is an even more powerful work now; a beautifully constructed tome exploring Heaney's life, in his own words and the words of his fellow poet, and friend, who knew him so well and spoke of him with such reverence. They were both, in many ways, possessed by the language of poetry and it was ever apparent here through this work.
Stepping Stones is a collaborative effort between two poets of very high esteem in Ireland. In it, Thurles born Dennis O’Driscoll brings both Heaney and the reader right back to where it all began for the Derry native and traces time from there to now in the warmest and most descriptive way.
The interview-style memoir represents a remarkable achievement for both O’Driscoll and Heaney. On one hand, as a man whose words are so sought after and celebrated, Heaney had the choice to spend as much or as little time writing exactly what he wanted to write in the least intrusive way possible. On the other hand, O’Driscoll was given the incredibly sought-after opportunity to ask all of the questions he, and so many others would always have wished to ask: “I had been, for years, in awe of Seamus Heaney’s brilliance as an interviewee - apart from his being, of course, a first-rate poet and critic. Most interviews with him end too soon, whereas I wanted to keep the conversation going until it became, in essence, the story of his life".
This project was something of a dream come true for O’Driscoll. “Because the narrative voice in Stepping Stones is Heaney’s own, I was able, in the swoop of a single book, to present three things: The first Heaney biography; a kind of autobiography; and the protracted conversation with the poet I had always wished for. Displaying the generosity that is his hallmark, he proved willing to join me in this project. It was a bigger decision for him than it was for me: his life, after all, is the book’s subject.”
In the autumn of 2001 O’Driscoll approached his long-time friend about the idea and they agreed to a certain formula that could work for both of them. The book is neither fully an autobiography nor a biography but maintains an effective balance between the two styles and allowed both of them to mold it into exactly what they envisaged it to be.
A thoroughly fascinating aspect of Stepping Stones is the remarkable wealth of memories that Heaney possesses and his attention to detail throughout the reminisces, as O'Driscoll explains: “Memory is the muse of every poet, but Seamus Heaney enjoys an especially close relationship with Mnemosyne. He has total recall of his childhood, an almost infinite reservoir of memories: people, places, things. My own starting point was to pose the basic questions: who is he, what sort of place does he come from, how was he educated, who were his friends, how did he come to literature, what political dilemmas did he face, how did he deal with fame, how did he cope with serious illness and all the other shocks that flesh is heir to? Inevitably, I produced an external portrait more than an internal one; the most intensely inward portrait of an artist is found in his art.”
Considering this project was such a challenge and a privilege for O’Driscoll the preparation that went into researching and writing questions and the time spent doing this and reading and editing the work was astounding. “I was allowed to ask anything at all I wanted, other than to seek detailed explications of individual Heaney poems: an entirely understandable reservation, because no poet wants to limit a poem to his own personal interpretation of it. The danger is that any comments he makes may be taken to be the last word, whereas no one person’s reading of a good poem - even if that person is its author - is the definitive or exhaustive one. It is essential to leave room for readers to bring their own lives, experiences and judgements to a text.”
Once O’Driscoll started writing questions he found he could not stop, realising the importance of the project, not just for him but for Heaney lovers everywhere. “I asked more questions than he could possibly answer. Indeed – and this is no exaggeration – I could publish a book as big as Stepping Stones containing nothing but my original questions. Perhaps that book could be designated MI 2 rather than Volume 2! My diligence was rooted in a sense of privilege: an awareness that I had been given an opportunity equivalent to being allowed, in other times, to interview a William Wordsworth or W.B. Yeats.”
With this opportunity, O’Driscoll gathered every piece of information he could possibly find on the Nobel Prize-winning poet and delved deep into his poetry for ideas. “I hoped I was asking the questions his readers would want me to ask. Or as many of them, at least, as Heaney could be reasonably expected to answer – he had a busy life to live, after all, and could not spend the remainder of it reminiscing to this would-be Boswell at his heels!’
Being a poet himself and understanding the process of writing poetry itself made O’Driscoll an ideal candidate for such a venture and it seems he managed to capture a depth to Heaney that others may not have been able to reach. There is also an incredible amount of warmth of friendship to the conversations which also adds greatly to the flow of the book. “We know each other for a long time. I had actually interviewed him, on the occasion of his fortieth birthday, for a weekly magazine called Hibernia. I had also interviewed him on RTE radio when I was in my twenties. As they say, we go back a long way...”
A huge understanding is also present in the questions O’Driscoll asked and the manner in which Heaney answered and this, in itself, can be drawn from an understanding of Ireland through a certain era and way of life. “We share a common rural bond, if only because I too grew up in the old Ireland. I spent my childhood in a house that relied exclusively for drinking water on a hand pump. We had no telephone or television. So, with many other shared affinities also, there was a readymade foundation on which to build in the book. One thing I didn’t want, however, was to be an intrusive interviewer or to adopt a backslapping, over-familiar tone. I chose to take a low-key approach, to keep at a respectful distance, so that it is Heaney’s voice one hears throughout the book, not mine.”
Considering this was the first official book of its kind on the renowned author, O’Driscoll got the opportunity to learn a wealth of information about Heaney first hand. The book is infinitely informative and the poet’s reminiscing is intricately detailed. When asked was there anything surprising or revealing about any of the information supplied by Heaney to him over the course of the years they spent putting together this book, O’Driscoll was immediately flattering about the venture. “There were numerous individual revelations, in the form of anecdotes and recollections and insights that were entirely new to me. Maybe the most remarkable and heartening revelation of all was to be able to confirm that the man behind the benign public image really is every bit as warm and generous as he appears: a Nobel Prize laureate without a scintilla of artistic arrogance.”
Something that any reader of Stepping Stones could also surmise is the unbelievable quality of writing that Heaney brings with him wherever he goes and for whatever project he is working. Every answer he supplies throughout the course of the book is delightfully elegant and poetically written. “He has complete command of a language so personal, so distinctive and so evocative, that his conversation – like his poetry – is uniquely textured and tinctured. His is a poetry that goes beyond intelligence and inspiration to the wellsprings of language itself.”
When describing Heaney’s use of language you can completely see the utmost respect that O’Driscoll pays to this talent and skill. “It’s as if - in an era of piped and filtered water - somebody had access to a pure and pristine spring that had never been used before. Time and again, he is able to dip into that source – just as he might have dipped a bucket into a County Derry well in his childhood.”
The key power of Stepping Stones is almost the opportunity the reader, and O’Driscoll himself, posses to see inside this great mind and hear from his own words where he came from and what all the events were that led him to where he is now. This was certainly something his interviewer became aware of during the course of combining forces with Heaney. “It is fascinating to see the great Heaney mind in action: the emotional depths it can draw on, the linguistic resources it can summon. He has permanently enriched the language and our lives."
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