Michael Longley is one of a number of Northern Irish poets who established a reputation in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Though his poetry is less well known than that of his contemporary Seamus Heaney, he has many admirers who respond to the achieved formality and traditional qualities that distinguish his work as a whole.

He was born in the city of Belfast, where he attended the Malone Primary School (1946-1951) and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (1951-1958). In 1958 he went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he read classics. After receiving a B.A. with honors in 1963, he worked for six years as a school teacher in Dublin, London, and Belfast. Since 1970 he has worked for the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, a state-funded organization whose purpose is to promote and support the cultural life of the province. As part of his duties he has compiled a...