Digging Into Heaney

America's Book Club discusses Human Chain, the new collection of poems by Seamus Heaney. Angela O'Donnell, a poet and professor of English at Fordham University, analyzes the recurrent themes in the collection, including mortality and the sacramental nature of creation. As in previous volumes, Heaney uses his writing to carry on a conversation with generations past, and here he converses with both his deceased parents and poets such as John Donne. Professor O'Donnell also reads her own poem, "Homage to St. Seamus," which was published in America in March 2010.