Poet Seamus Heaney laid to rest in Dublin

U2 singer Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, at the funeral for Seamus Heaney on MondayPETER MORRISON/AP

DUBLIN — Ireland mourned the loss of its Nobel laureate poet, Seamus Heaney, with equal measures of poetry and pain Monday in a funeral full of grace notes and a final message from the great man himself: Don't be afraid.

Among those packing the pews of Dublin's Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart were government leaders from both parts of Ireland, poets and novelists, Bono and The Edge from rock band U2, and former Lebanese hostage Brian Keenan.

Ireland's foremost uilleann piper, Liam O'Flynn, played a wailing lament before family members and friends offered a string of readings from the Bible and their own often-lyrical remembrances of the country's most celebrated writer of the late 20th century. The 90-minute service ended with a cellist's rendition of the childhood bedtime classic ''Brahms's Lullaby.''

Heaney won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995 in recognition of his wide-ranging writings inspired by the rural wonders of Ireland, the strife of his native Northern Ireland, the ancient cultures of Europe, of Roman Catholic faith and Celtic mysticism, and the immutability of family ties. He died Friday in a Dublin hospital at 74.

In a tribute delivered from the pulpit, one of Heaney's three children revealed his final words: a text message from his hospital bed to his wife, Marie.

Michael Heaney said the words, ''written a few minutes before he passed away, were in his beloved Latin. And they read: 'Noli timere.' Don't be afraid.'' That revelation opened a ripple of tears in the audience, including from Marie and daughter Catherine.

Michael and his brother, Christopher, and other relatives carried Heaney's coffin from the church. Outside, on a blustery and sunny day, hundreds spontaneously applauded as his casket emerged into the light.

One of the poets who read prayers to the mourners, Theo Dorgan, said many lovers of poetry worldwide had expected Heaney to live much longer. He noted that Heaney had resumed worldwide readings and seminars following a 2006 stroke.

''A great oak has fallen. A lot of people sheltered in the amplitude of the leaf and light and shade of the oak that was Seamus. He expanded our idea of what poetry is and can be,'' Dorgan said in an interview.