Seamus Heaney — ‘Bog Queen’

I have an especially happy memory of writing ‘Bog Queen’ Because it was the first time in my life, believe it or not, that I’d spent a whole uninterrupted work day on a poem. Before we moved to Wicklow, you know, my time wasn’t particularly my own: there was always the Queen’s job, or the school, or the training college, or grading papers, or having to go see parents at the weekend, or whatever. But in Glanmore that day I learned to shift the emphasis, found myself free to regard poem work as the day job. It was a weekday in what I still thought of as term time; but I started in the morning and kept at it until after dark.

(Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney, by Dennis O’Driscoll)

That must be a good feeling.