LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

We're remembering one of the 20th Century's most important poets this morning. Seamus Heaney died today in a Dublin hospital. The poet often wrote about Northern Ireland and his upbringing there. He published a dozen collections of poetry. Among his other work, a highly praised translation of "Beowulf." Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995. Here he is in a 2008 NPR interview, reading an excerpt of the poem, "Fosterling."'s business news starts a black budget illuminated.

SEAMUS HEANEY: I can't remember not ever having known The imminent hydraulics of a land of glaur and glit and floods at dailigone. My silting hope, my lowlands of the mind, Heaviness of being. And poetry, sluggish in the doldrums of what happens. Me, waiting until I was nearly fifty To credit marvels. Like the tree-clock of tin cans The tinkers made. So long for air to brighten, Time to be dazzled and the heart to lighten.

WERTHEIMER: Poet Seamus Heaney died today at the age of 74. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.