Hope for a great sea-change timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive. Seamus Heaney More Quotes by Seamus Heaney More Quotes From Seamus Heaney The external reality and inner dynamic of happenings in Northern Ireland between 1968 and 1974 were symptomatic of change, violent change admittedly, but change nevertheless, and for the minority living there, change had been long overdue. Seamus Heaney minorities long reality The aim of poetry and the poet is finally to be of service, to ply the effort of the individual into the larger work of the community as a whole. Seamus Heaney plies effort community Walk on air against your better judgement. Seamus Heaney judgement wisdom air I have always thought of poems as stepping stones in one's own sense of oneself. Every now and again, you write a poem that gives you self-respect and steadies your going a little bit farther out in the stream. At the same time, you have to conjure the next stepping stone because the stream, we hope, keeps flowing. Seamus Heaney self writing giving Behaviour that's admired is the path to power among people everywhere. Seamus Heaney behaviour path people Two buckets were easier carried than one. / I grew up in between. Seamus Heaney buckets easier two Suspect too much sweet talk but never close your mind. Seamus Heaney nymphs mind sweet I've always associated the moment of writing with a moment of lift, of joy, of unexpected reward. Seamus Heaney rewards writing joy It is difficult at times to repress the thought that history is about as instructive as an abattoir; that Tacitus was right and that peace is merely the desolation left behind after the decisive operations of merciless power. Seamus Heaney operations desolation difficult I rhyme… to see myself, to set the darkness echoing. Seamus Heaney rhyme poetry darkness If self is a location, so is love: Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, Here and there and now and then, a stance. Seamus Heaney distance taken self The next move is always the test. Seamus Heaney next-move tests moving On the contrary, a trust in the staying power and travel-worthiness of such good should encourage us to credit the possibility of a world where respect for the validity of every tradition Seamus Heaney issues political space In fact, in lyric poetry, truthfulness becomes recognizable as a ring of truth within the medium itself. Seamus Heaney truthfulness lyric-poetry facts The thing about writing is that if you have the impulse, you will find the time. Seamus Heaney impulse ifs writing I felt implicated in American affairs.Outraged at the blatant lies about Iraqs involvement in al Qaeda, at the regimes arrogance and stupidity, Guantnamo Bay and all the rest of it. But the poems at the start of District and Circle Anahorish 1944, The Aerodromearent particularly aimed as criticism. On the contrary, there's a recognition of the big contribution to world order made in Europe during World War II. Seamus Heaney war order lying I don't miss teaching. I'm learning to take my time for myself. Seamus Heaney my-time teaching missing The whole relationship between a writer's spiritual/emotional condition and the kind of wordstuff and form-making that's going on in his work is an interesting one. When I was an undergraduate, there was a glib notion around that there was no reason to suppose a bad man could be a good writer. Seamus Heaney emotional spiritual men Debate doesn’t really change things. It gets you bogged in deeper. If you can address or reopen the subject with something new, something from a different angle, then there is some hope. ... People are suddenly gazing at something else and pausing for a moment. And for the duration of that gaze and pause, they are like reflectors of the totality of their own knowledge and/or ignorance. That’s something poetry can do for you, it can entrance you for a moment above the pool of your own consciousness and your own possibilities. Seamus Heaney different ignorance people Desmond O'Grady is one of the senior figures in Irish Seamus Heaney senior way art
