I sat the same syllabus as you, and I loved the poems even then, before I loved the idea of a poet. I also adored the War Poetry and Ted Hughes works we did at the same time, and I went on to make Wilfred Owen's poetry a large part of my MA in English.

I think Heaney gives us a divisive experience, certainly, which not all poets do, but I am firmly on the side of "the man was a genius". I've heard him read much of his poetry aloud in person, I've been "forced" to study it and I've studied it by choice, and I still like it as much as the day I first read 'Digging'.