A framed, typed manuscript of a famous poem by the late Seamus Heaney hangs by the desk of Professor of Psychology Georgia Nigro in her Pettengill Hall office. At the bottom is a handwritten note: 鈥淭o Georgia 鈥� hoping you approve of this order 鈥� how you heard it! S.鈥�
In the early 1990s, Heaney, who was a friend of Nigro鈥檚 husband, Senior Lecturer in English Robert Farnsworth, gave a reading at 乐播传媒. The reading included one of his newer poems, 鈥淎 Sofa in the Forties.鈥�
Georgia Nigro holds a framed copy of Seamus Heaney’s poem “A Sofa in the Forties” that he inscribed for her.
The poem begins with children on a sofa pretending they鈥檙e riding a train, but the reader soon understands that 鈥渋t is really about the trains taking Jews to concentration camps,鈥� Nigro explains. That shift, 鈥渇rom playful to serious was so startling, but beautifully done. I liked the way it grabbed me and sort of massaged my emotions from one place to another.鈥�
After the reading, she made a point of telling Heaney how much she admired it. What Nigro didn鈥檛 know at the time, nor did anyone else in Schaeffer Theatre that night, was that during the reading聽鈥� as he was at the lectern 鈥� Heaney swapped the order of the third and fourth stanzas, and that new arrangement was how the poem would later be published.
She learned about the switch when he mailed her the original typewritten poem, with hand-drawn edits 鈥� made right after the 乐播传媒 reading, reflecting his new preference. And that鈥檚 how the poem appears in 1996鈥檚 The Spirit Level, published a year after Heaney won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Nigro recalls the thrill of receiving the unexpected gift from a poet who is 鈥渢he voice you want reading you bedtime stories when you鈥檙e an adult.”
She’s loved his work all these years, recalling his 鈥渟tunning鈥� reading of the poem 鈥淒igging鈥� at 乐播传媒 in 1986, when he received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.
Nigro has always kept the framed poem 鈥� and a photo of the family dogs聽鈥� near her. The placement is intentional, she says, because the poem is a treasure. 鈥淚 like having his poem and a picture of my dogs to remind me that there鈥檚 more to life than the large screen in front of me.鈥�
