As Seamus Heaney read his poetry at Harvard University last night, his listeners seemed to have a renewed faith in the power of the written word.’ ‘

‘He gets you to think about ideas and concepts that are greater than yourself,’ 2007 Boston University alumna Logan Takahashi said.

As an English teacher at a nearby high school, Takahashi did not want to miss the chance to hear the 1995 Nobel Prize winner in Literature speak at the Sanders Theater in Cambridge.

Before Heaney, a gentle old man with kind eyes, a warm smile and hair whitened with wisdom, approached the podium, silence filled the room. Then he spoke. His thick Irish accent resonated deeply, allowing the audience to escape to another place as he read poems such as ‘The Underground,’ ‘A Villanelle for an Anniversary’ and ‘Anything Can Happen,’ among others.

‘ In ‘The Birch Grove,’ Heaney describes a birch tree from an attic in Belfast, Ireland — the poet’s home town. In ‘Alphabets’ his listeners could imagine a little boy learning to write the alphabet on a slate.

In ‘The Underground,’ Heaney recalls the moment he and his wife were running late for their honeymoon and describes the flapping of his wife’s coat as she ran through a tunnel.

‘There we were in the vaulted tunnel running, you in your going-away coat speeding ahead and me, me then like a fleet god gaining upon you before you turned to a reed,’ he read.

Heaney, a poet and occasional Harvard professor, uses imagery and metaphors that have an impact on most who listen to or read his work, attendees agreed. As he read his poetry, he encouraged his listeners to write their own poetry and see the beauty in the simple matters of life.

Harvard senior and aspiring poet Judith Huang said part of the reason she decided to come to Harvard was to simply see Heaney. Huang said she loves his use of sound as well as his drive to remain relevant.

‘I’ve been waiting for four years to see him,’ she said. ‘I’m basically his biggest fan.’

Harvard Divinity School professor Tom Rooney said he has been a fan of Heaney for much longer.

‘I’ve been reading his work for 30 years,’ Rooney said.

Rooney said he feels a connection to Heaney’s poems about Belfast, Ireland because he and both his grandparents were born there.

Despite his success, Heaney remains humble. At one point in the lecture, his voice began to get a little dry and he paused to take a sip of water. He felt bad for the interruption, apologized and raised his bottle to the crowd saying, ‘good health.’ Near the end of his talk, he showed his gratitude saying, ‘Thank you very much for listening to all of this,’ as if the audience were only there as a favor to him.

Just as Heaney’s poems attempt to decipher the world, the poet had a message for his audience last night about the key to human existence.’ ‘

‘The secret of life, love and literature is getting started, keeping going and getting started again,’ he said.