Discover a wealth of wisdom and insight from Seamus Heaney through their most impactful and thought-provoking quotes and sayings. Expand your perspective with their inspiring words and share these beautiful Seamus Heaney quote pictures with your friends and followers on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blog - all free of charge. We've compiled the top 205 Seamus Heaney quotes for you to explore and share with others.

So hope for a great sea-changeOn the far side of revenge.Believe that further shoreIs reachable from here.Believe in miraclesAnd cures and healing wells. By Seamus Heaney Hope Great Seachangeon Side Revengebelieve

The form of the poem, in other words, is crucial to poetry's power to do the thing which always is and always will be to poetry's credit: the power to persuade that vulnerable part of our consciousness of its rightness in spite of the evidence of wrongness all around it, the power to remind us that we are hunters and gatherers of values, that our very solitudes and distresses are creditable, in so far as they, too, are an earnest of our veritable human being. By Seamus Heaney Power Poetry Poem Words Credit

For now that it was gone, it all seemed Far stranger: more fantastical than Pharaoh. And he was changed: a foreigner among them. By Seamus Heaney Pharaoh Stranger Fantastical Changed Foreigner

The ability to start out upon your own impulse isfundamental to the gift of keeping going upon your ownterms ... Getting started, keeping going, getting started again in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm. By Seamus Heaney Ownterms Keeping Ability Start Impulse

Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done. By Seamus Heaney Things Gumption Sharp Mind Measure

Desmond O'Grady is one of the senior figures in Irish Literary life, exemplary in the way he has committed himself over the decades to the vocation of poetry and has lived selflessly for the art By Seamus Heaney Irish Literary Desmond Life Exemplary

Once off the bush The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour. I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot. Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not. -Blackberry picking By Seamus Heaney Fermented Sour Bush Fruit Sweet

In my early teens, I acquired a kind of representative status: went on behalf of the family to wakes and funerals and so on. And I would be counted on as an adult contributor when it came to farm work - the hay in the summertime, for example. By Seamus Heaney Teens Status Early Acquired Kind

No bit of the natural world is more valuable or more vulnerable than the tree bit. Nothing is more like ourselves, standing upright, caught between heaven and earth, frail at the extremities, yet strong at the central trunk, and nothing is closer to us at the beginning and at the end, providing the timber boards that frame both the cradle and the coffin. By Seamus Heaney Bit Natural World Valuable Vulnerable

But death is not easily escaped from by anyone: all of us with souls, earth-dwellers and children of men, must make our way to a destination already ordained where the body, after the banqueting, sleeps on its deathbed. By Seamus Heaney Souls Earthdwellers Men Body Banqueting

I think the first little jolt I got was reading Gerard Manley Hopkins - I liked other poems ... but Hopkins was kind of electric for me - he changed the rules with speech, and the whole intensity of the language was there and so on. By Seamus Heaney Gerard Manley Hopkins Poems Jolt

This morning from a dewy motorwayI saw the new camp for the internees:A bomb had left a crater of fresh clayIn the roadside, and over in the treesMachine-gun posts defined a real stockade.There was that white mist you get on a low groundAnd it was deja-vu, some film madeOf Stalag 17, a bad dream with no sound.Is there a life before death? That's chalked upIn Ballymurphy. Competence with pain,Coherent miseries, a bite and sup:we hug our little destiny again.-Whatever You Say Say Nothing By Seamus Heaney Stalag Internees Roadside Dejavu Death

The diamond absolutes.I am neither internee nor informer;An inner emigre, grown long-hairedAnd thoughtful; a wood-kerneEscaped from the massacre,Taking protective colouringFrom bole and bark, feelingEvery wind that blows;Who, blowing up these sparksFor their meagre heat, have missedThe once-in-a-lifetime portent,The comet's pulsing tose. By Seamus Heaney Informer Emigre Grown Thoughtful Bark

What do we say any more to conjure the salt of our earth? So much comes and is gone that should be crystal and kept, and amicable weathers that bring up the grain of things, their tang of season and store, are all the packing we'll get. By Seamus Heaney Earth Conjure Salt Things Store

I composed habits for those acresso that my last look would beneither gluttonous nor starved.I was ready to go anywhere. By Seamus Heaney Composed Habits Acresso Beneither Gluttonous

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. By Seamus Heaney Service Aim Poetry Poet Finally

Then as the years went on and my listening became more deliberate, I would climb up on an arm of our big sofa to get my ear closer to the wireless speaker. By Seamus Heaney Deliberate Speaker Years Listening Climb

It is always betterto avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.For every one of us, living in this worldmeans waiting for our end. Let whoever canwin glory before death. When a warrior is gone,that will be his best and only bulwark. By Seamus Heaney Living End Betterto Avenge Dear

My point is there's a hidden Scotland in anyone who speaks the Northern Ireland speech. It's a terrific complicating factor, not just in Northern Ireland, but Ireland generally. By Seamus Heaney Ireland Northern Scotland Speech Point

I step through originslike a dog turningits memories of wildernesson the kitchen mat:the bog floor shakes,water cheeps and lispsas I walk downrushes and heather.I love this turf-face,it's black incisions,the cooped secretsof process and ritual:-Kinship By Seamus Heaney Kinship Mat Black Ritual Step

When I first encountered the name of the city of Stockholm, I little thought that I would ever visit it, never mind end up being welcomed to it as a guest of the Swedish Academy and the Nobel Foundation. By Seamus Heaney Stockholm Foundation Swedish Academy Nobel

Not to Learn Irish is to miss the opportunity of understanding what life in this country has meant and could mean in a better future. It is to cut oneself off from ways of being at home. If we regard self-understanding, mutual understanding, imaginative enhancement, cultural diversity and a tolerant political atmosphereas a desirable attainments, we should remember that a knowledge of the Irish language is an essential element in their realisation. By Seamus Heaney Learn Irish Future Miss Opportunity

PostscriptAnd some time make the time to drive out westInto County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,In September or October, when the windAnd the light are working off each otherSo that the ocean on one side is wildWith foam and glitter, and inland among stonesThe surface of a slate-grey lake is litBy the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,Their fully grown headstrong-looking headsTucked or cresting or busy underwater.Useless to think you'll park and capture itMore thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,A hurry through which known and strange things passAs big soft buffetings come at the car sidewaysAnd catch the heart off guard and blow it open. By Seamus Heaney Time Clare October County Flaggy

Now it's high watermark and floodtide in the heartand time to go.The sea-nymphs in the spraywill be the chorus now.What's left to say?Suspect too much sweet-talkbut never close your mind.It was a fortunate windthat blew me here. I leavehalf-ready to believe that a crippled trust might walkand the half-true rhyme is love. By Seamus Heaney Suspect Chorus Left High Watermark

And you, Tacitus,observe how I make my groveon an old crannogpiled by the fearful dead:a desolate peace.Our mother groundin sour with the bloodof her faithful,they lie garglingin her sacred heartas the legions starefrom the ramparts.Come back to this 'island of the ocean'where nothing will suffice.Read the inhumed facesof casualty and victim;report us fairly,how we slaughterfor the common goodand shave the headsof the notorious,how the goddess swallowsour love and terror.- Kinship By Seamus Heaney Kinship Tacitusobserve Dead Island Victim

A ring-whorled prow rode in the harbour,ice-clad, outbound, a craft for a prince.They stretched their beloved lord in his boat,laid out by the mast, amidships,the great ring-giver. Far fetched treasureswere piled upon him, and precious gear.I have never heard before of a ship so well furbishedwith battle tackle, bladed weaponsand coats of mail. The massed treasurewas loaded on top of him: it would travel faron out into the ocean's sway.They decked his body no less bountifullywith offerings than those first ones didwho cast him away when he was a childand launched him alone over the waves.And they set a gold standard uphigh above his head and let him driftto wind and tide, bewailing himand mourning their loss. No man can tell,no wise man in hall or weathered veteranknows for certain who salvaged that load. By Seamus Heaney Outbound Mast Amidshipsthe Ringgiver Ringwhorled

Without needing to be theoretically instructed, consciousness quickly realizes that it is the site of variously contending discourses. By Seamus Heaney Instructed Consciousness Discourses Needing Theoretically

In a way, Anglo-Saxon poetry cannot be translated. By Seamus Heaney Anglosaxon Translated Poetry

People so staunch and true, they're fixated,Shining with self-regard like polished stones.And their whole life spent admiring themselves For their own long-suffering.Licking their woundsAnd flashing them around like decorations. I hate it, I always hated it, and I amA part of it myself. By Seamus Heaney People True Decorations Staunch Fixatedshining

Diodorus Siculus confessedHis gradual ease among the likes of this:Murdered, forgotten, nameless, terribleBeheaded girl, outstaring axeAnd beatification, outstaringWhat had begun to feel like reverence.-Strange Fruit By Seamus Heaney Murdered Forgotten Nameless Strange Fruit

At a certain age, the light that you live in is inhabited by the shades ... I'm very conscious that people dear to me are alive in my imagination ... These people are with me. It's just a stage of your life when the death of people doesn't banish them out of your consciousness, They're part of the light in your head. By Seamus Heaney Age Shades People Live Inhabited

It is said that once upon a time St. Kevin was kneeling with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross in Glendalough ... As Kevin knelt and prayed, a blackbird mistook his outstretched hand for some kind of roost and swooped down upon it, laid a clutch of eggs in it and proceeded to nest in it as if it were the branch of a tree. Then, overcome with pity and constrained by his faith to love all creatures great and small, Kevin stayed immobile for hours and days and nights and weeks, holding out his hand until the eggs hatched and the fledging grew wings, true to life if subversive of common sense, at the intersection of natural process and the glimpsed ideal, at one and the same time a signpost and a reminder. Manifesting that order of poetry where we can at last grow up to that which we stored up as we grew. By Seamus Heaney Kevin Glendalough Time Kneeling Arms

It has as much to do with the energy released by linguistic fission and fusion, with the buoyancy generated by cadence and tone and rhyme and stanza, as it has to do with the poem'sconcerns or the poet's truthfulness. By Seamus Heaney Fusion Stanza Truthfulness Energy Released

My body was braille for the creeping influences. By Seamus Heaney Influences Body Braille Creeping

And a young prince must be prudent like that,giving freely while his father livesso that afterwards, in age when fighting startssteadfast companions will stand by himand hold the line. By Seamus Heaney Line Young Prince Prudent Thatgiving

I might enjoy being an albatross, being able to glide for days and daydream for hundreds of miles along the thermals. And then being able to hang like an affliction round some people's necks. By Seamus Heaney Albatross Thermals Enjoy Glide Days

A public expectation, it has to be said, not of poetry as such but of political positions variously approvable by mutually disapproving groups. By Seamus Heaney Expectation Groups Public Poetry Political

A four foot box, a foot for every year. By Seamus Heaney Box Year Foot

Then I thought of the tribe whose dances never fail / For they keep dancing till they sight the deer. By Seamus Heaney Fail Deer Thought Tribe Dances

The poet is on the side of undeceiving the world. By Seamus Heaney World Poet Side Undeceiving

The fact of the matter is that the most unexpected and miraculous thing in my life was the arrival in it of poetry itself - as a vocation and an elevation almost. By Seamus Heaney Fact Matter Unexpected Miraculous Thing

So whether he calls it spirit music or not, I don't care. He took it out of wind off mid-Atlantic. By Seamus Heaney Care Calls Spirit Music Midatlantic

Love brought me that far by the hand, without The slightest doubt or irony, dry-eyed And knowledgeable, contrary as be damned; Then just kept standing there, not letting go. By Seamus Heaney Love Hand Irony Dryeyed Knowledgeable

I suppose you inevitably fall into habits of expression. By Seamus Heaney Expression Suppose Inevitably Fall Habits

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. By Seamus Heaney Tacitus Abattoir Power Difficult Times

I've been in the habit of helping people. By Seamus Heaney People Habit Helping

Fate goes ever as fate must. By Seamus Heaney Fate

You had to come back to learn how to lose yourself, to be pilot and stray-witch, Hansel and Gretel in one. By Seamus Heaney Hansel Gretel Straywitch Back Learn

The kinds of truth that art gives us many, many times are small truths. They don't have the resonance of an encyclical from the Pope stating an eternal truth, but they partake of the quality of eternity. There is a sort of timeless delight in them. By Seamus Heaney Truth Kinds Art Times Small

Poetry is more a threshold than a path. By Seamus Heaney Poetry Path Threshold

The faking of feelings is a sin against the imagination. By Seamus Heaney Imagination Faking Feelings Sin

Did you ever hear tell,'said Jimmy Farrell,'of the skulls they havein the city of Dublin?White skulls and black skullsand yellow skulls, and some with full teeth, and some haven't only but one,' and compounded history in the pan of 'an old Dane,maybe, was drownedin the Flood.'My words lick aroundcobbled quays, go huntinglightly as pampootiesover the skull-capped ground.-Viking Dublin: Trial Pieces By Seamus Heaney Dublin Skulls Farrell White Danemaybe

The amount of sensory material stored up or stored down in the brain's and the body's systems is inestimable. It's like a culture at the bottom of a jar, although it doesn't grow, I think, or help anything else to grow unless you find a way to reach it and touch it. By Seamus Heaney Stored Inestimable Amount Sensory Material

My poor scapegoat,I almost love youbut would have cast, I know,the stones of silence.I am the artful voyeurof your brain's exposed and darkened combs,your muscles' webbingand all your numbered bones:I who have stood dumbwhen your betraying sisters,cauled in tar,wept by the railings,who would connivein civilized outrageyet understand the exactand tribal, intimate revenge.-Punishment By Seamus Heaney Punishment Cast Bones Tribal Intimate

Poetry cannot afford to lose its fundamentally self-delighting inventiveness, its joy in being a process of language as well as a representation of things in the world. By Seamus Heaney Poetry Inventiveness World Afford Lose

My experience is that prose usually equals duty - last minute, overdue-deadline stuff or a panic lecture to be written. By Seamus Heaney Duty Minute Overduedeadline Written Experience

Archibald MacLeish affirmed that 'A poem should be equal to / not true'. As a defiant statement of poetry's gift for telling truth but telling it slant, this is both cogent and corrective. Yet there are times when a deeper need enters, when we want the poem to be not only pleasurably right but compellingly wise, not only a surprising variation played upon the world, but a retuning of the world itself. We want the surprise to be transitive, like the impatient thump which unexpectedly restores the picture to the television set, or the electric shock which sets the fibrillating heart back to its proper rhythm. We want what the woman wanted in the prison queue in Leningrad, standing there blue with cold and whispering for fear, enduring the terror of Stalin's regime and asking the poet Anna Akhmatova if she could describe it all, if her art could be equal to it. By Seamus Heaney Archibald True Poem Macleish Affirmed

And here is lovelike a tinsmith's scoopsunk past its gleanin the meal-binSunlight By Seamus Heaney Mealbinsunlight Lovelike Tinsmith Scoopsunk Past

I'm not personally obsessed with death. At a certain age, the light that you live in is inhabited by the shades - it 'tis. By Seamus Heaney Death Tis Personally Obsessed Age

Since when," he asked,"Are the first line and last line of any poemWhere the poem begins and ends? By Seamus Heaney Asked Ends Line Poemwhere Poem

Let whoever can win glory before death. By Seamus Heaney Death Win Glory

To encounter 'Beowulf' is like taking a sledgehammer to a quarry face. You must bang in there. By Seamus Heaney Beowulf Encounter Face Taking Sledgehammer

Hung in the scaleswith beauty and atrocity:with the Dying Gaultoo strictly compassedon his shieldwith the actual weightof each hooded victim,slashed and dumped. By Seamus Heaney Dying Gaultoo Hung Atrocity Dumped

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 traditionwill issue in the creation and maintenance of a salubrious political space. By Seamus Heaney Contrary Space Trust Staying Power

Islanders tooare for sculpting. By Seamus Heaney Islanders Sculpting Tooare

The gift of writing is to be self-forgetful, to get a surge of inner life or inner supply or unexpected sense of empowerment, to be afloat, to be out of yourself. By Seamus Heaney Selfforgetful Empowerment Afloat Gift Writing

As a young poet, you need corroboration, and that's what publication does. By Seamus Heaney Poet Corroboration Young Publication

Getting started, keeping going, getting started again - in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm not only of achievement but of survival, the ground of convincedaction, the basis of self-esteem and the guarantee of credibility in your lives, credibility to yourselves as well as to others. By Seamus Heaney Started Credibility Keeping Life Survival

Memory has always been fundamental for me. In fact, remembering what I had forgotten is the way most of the poems get started. By Seamus Heaney Memory Fundamental Fact Remembering Started

In off the moors, down through the mist beams, god-cursed Grendel came greedily loping. By Seamus Heaney Grendel Moors Beams Godcursed Loping

I am not a playwright. A playwright would take Antigone and hit it a few clouts and knock it out of shape and restructure it. My versioning was strictly verbal. By Seamus Heaney Playwright Antigone Verbal Hit Clouts

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. By Seamus Heaney Bearings Markings Obstinacies Location Love

If self is a location, so is love. By Seamus Heaney Location Love

He sits, strong and blunt as a Celtic cross, Clearly used to silence and an armchair: Tonight the wife and children will be quiet At slammed door and smoker's cough in the hall. By Seamus Heaney Tonight Celtic Sits Strong Cross

The group of writers I had grown up with in the '60s - Derek Mahon, Michael Longley, James Simmons, John Hewitt, Paul Muldoon - formed a very necessary and self-sustaining group. By Seamus Heaney Derek Mahon Michael Longley James

Yeats was 18th-century oratory, almost. By Seamus Heaney Oratory Yeats

I think of Dermot Healy as the heir to Patrick Kavanagh. By Seamus Heaney Kavanagh Dermot Healy Patrick Heir

Happy the man ... with a natural gift for practising the right one [art] from the startpoetry, say, or fishing; whose nights are dreamless;whose deep-sunk panoramas rise and pass like daylight through the rod's eye or the nib's eye. By Seamus Heaney Art Eye Happy Man Startpoetry

We were small and thought we knew nothing Worth knowing. We thought words travelled the wires In the shiny pouches of raindrops, Each one seeded full with the light Of the sky, the gleam of the lines, and ourselves So infinitesimally scaled We could stream through the eye of a needle. By Seamus Heaney Worth Knowing Thought Small Knew

Behaviour that's admiredis the path to power among people everywhere. By Seamus Heaney Behaviour Admiredis Path Power People

What I've said before, only half in joke, is that everybody in Ireland is famous. Or, maybe better, say everybody is familiar. By Seamus Heaney Ireland Joke Famous Half Familiar

I think that water is immediately interesting. It's just, as an element, it is full of life. It is associated with origin; it is bright - it reflects you. By Seamus Heaney Interesting Water Immediately Element Life

But that citizen's perception was also at one with the truth in recognizing that the very brutality of the means by which the IRA were pursuing change was destructive of the trust upon which new possibilities would have to be based. By Seamus Heaney Ira Based Citizen Perception Truth

One of the best descriptions of the type of writer I am was given by Tom Paulin, who described himself as a 'binge' writer - like a binge drinker. I go on binges. By Seamus Heaney Paulin Tom Writer Drinker Descriptions

Poems that come swiftly are usually the ones that you keep. By Seamus Heaney Poems Swiftly

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. By Seamus Heaney Stream Oneself Stepping Thought Sense

Whether it be a matter of personal relations within a marriage or political initiatives within a peace process, there is no sure-fire do-it-yourself kit. By Seamus Heaney Kit Process Surefire Matter Personal

Suspect too much sweet talk but never close your mind. By Seamus Heaney Suspect Mind Sweet Talk Close

The day I entered St Columb's College, my parents bought me a Conway Stewart pen. It was a special afternoon, of course. We were going to be parting that evening; they were aware of it, I was aware of it, nothing much was said about it. By Seamus Heaney College Columb Conway Stewart Pen

How perilous is it to choose not to love the life we're shown? By Seamus Heaney Shown Perilous Choose Love Life

I feel myself part of something. Not only being part of a community but part of an actual moment and a movement of Irish writing and art. That sense of being part of the whole thing is the deepest joy. By Seamus Heaney Part Feel Irish Art Community

We want what the woman wanted in the prison queue in Leningrad, standing there with cold and whispering for fear, enduring the terror of Stalin's regime and asking the poet Anna Akhmatova if she could describe it all, if her art was equal to it. By Seamus Heaney Leningrad Stalin Anna Akhmatova Standing

I always had a superstitious fear of setting up a too well-designed writing place and then finding that the writing had absconded. By Seamus Heaney Absconded Writing Superstitious Fear Setting

A landscape fossilized,It's stone-wall patterningsRepeated before our eyesIn the stone walls of Mayo.Before I turned to goHe talked about persistence,A congruence of lives,How, stubbed and cleared of stones,His home accrued growth ringsOf iron, flint and bronze- Belderg By Seamus Heaney Belderg Landscape Stonewall Liveshow Stubbed

I would say that something important for me and for my generation in Northern Ireland was the 1947 Education Act, which allowed students who won scholarships to go on to secondary schools and thence to university. By Seamus Heaney Education Act Northern Ireland University

The main thing is to writefor the joy of it. Cultivate a work-lustthat imagines its haven like your hands at nightdreaming the sun in the sunspot of a breast.You are fasted now, light-headed, dangerous.Take off from here. By Seamus Heaney Main Thing Writefor Joy Lightheaded

Anyone born and bred in Northern Ireland can't be too optimistic. By Seamus Heaney Northern Ireland Optimistic Born Bred

It's difficult to learn poems off by heart that don't rhyme. By Seamus Heaney Rhyme Difficult Learn Poems Heart

The bogholes might be Atlantic seepage.The wet centre is bottomless. By Seamus Heaney Atlantic Bottomless Bogholes Seepagethe Wet

Was music once a proof of God's existence? As long as it admits things beyond measure, That supposition stands. By Seamus Heaney God Existence Music Proof Measure

Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun. By Seamus Heaney Rests Snug Gun Finger Thumb

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. By Seamus Heaney Debate Things Change Moment Deeper

Don't be surprised if I demur, for, be advised my passport's green. By Seamus Heaney Demur Green Surprised Advised Passport

My father and mother had no sense of entitlement for their children. By Seamus Heaney Children Father Mother Sense Entitlement

Sink every impulse like a bolt. Secure The bastion of sensation. Do not waver Into language. Do not waver in it. By Seamus Heaney Sink Bolt Impulse Waver Secure

The Heaneys were aristocrats, in the sense that they took for granted a code of behavior that was given and unspoken. Argumentation, persuasion, speech itself, for God's sake, just seemed otiose and superfluous to them. By Seamus Heaney Heaneys Aristocrats Unspoken Argumentation Persuasion

In a war situation or where violence and injustice are prevalent, poetry is called upon to be something more than a thing of beauty. By Seamus Heaney Prevalent Poetry Beauty War Situation

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. By Seamus Heaney Change Northern Ireland Violent Admittedly

As writers and readers, as sinners and citizens, our realism and our aesthetic sense make us wary of crediting the positive note. By Seamus Heaney Readers Citizens Note Writers Sinners

Meanwhile, the swordbegan to wilt into gory icicles, to slather and thaw. It was a wonderful thing, the way it all melted as ice melts when the Father eases the fetters off the frostand unravels the water-ropes. He who wields powerover time and tide: He is the true Lord. By Seamus Heaney Icicles Thaw Swordbegan Wilt Gory

If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way. By Seamus Heaney Words Chance Find

I don't do as many readings as I used to. There was a time when I was on the road a lot more, at home in Ireland, in Britain, in Canada and the States, a time when I had more stamina and appetite for it. By Seamus Heaney Time Readings Ireland Britain States

Believe that a further shore is reachable from here. By Seamus Heaney Shore Reachable

Believe that further shoreIs reachable from here.Believe in miracleAnd cures and healing wells. By Seamus Heaney Shoreis Reachable Herebelieve Miracleand Cures

My father was a creature of the archaic world, really. He would have been entirely at home in a Gaelic hill-fort. His side of the family, and the houses I associate with his side of the family, belonged to a traditional rural Ireland. By Seamus Heaney World Family Father Creature Archaic

The dotted line my father's ashplant made On Sandymount Strand Is something else the tide won't wash away. By Seamus Heaney Sandymount Strand Dotted Line Father

Every time you read a poem aloud to yourself in the presence of others, you are reading it into yourself and them. Voice helps to carry words farther and deeper than the eye. By Seamus Heaney Time Read Poem Aloud Presence

Smile As you find a rhythm Working you, slow mile by mile, Into your proper haunt. By Seamus Heaney Working Smile Slow Haunt Mile

Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. By Seamus Heaney Hope Optimism Expects Things Turn

Yet there are times when a deeper need enters, when we want the poem to be not only pleasurably right but compellingly wise, not only a surprising variation played upon the world, but a re-tuning of the world itself. By Seamus Heaney World Enters Wise Times Deeper

The Ireland I now inhabit is one that these Irish contemporaries have helped to imagine. By Seamus Heaney Ireland Irish Imagine Inhabit Contemporaries

Is there life before death? That's chalked upIn Ballymurphy. Competence with pain,Coherent miseries, a bite and a sup,We hug our little destiny again. By Seamus Heaney Death Ballymurphy Life Competence Miseries

The completely solitary self: that's where poetry comes from, and it gets isolated by crisis, and those crises are often very intimate also. By Seamus Heaney Crisis Completely Solitary Poetry Isolated

Loyalism, or Unionism, or Protestantism, or whatever you want to call it, in Northern Ireland - it operates not as a class system, but a caste system. By Seamus Heaney System Loyalism Unionism Protestantism Ireland

Since I was a schoolboy, I've been used to being recognized on the road by old and young, and being bantered with and, indeed, being taunted. By Seamus Heaney Schoolboy Young Taunted Recognized Road

I'm a firm believer in learning by heart. By Seamus Heaney Heart Firm Believer Learning

That was their way, their heathenish hope; deep in their hearts they remembered hell. By Seamus Heaney Hope Deep Hell Heathenish Hearts

In Northern Ireland, helicopters are not usually used to promote poetry. By Seamus Heaney Ireland Northern Helicopters Poetry Promote

I cannot be weaned/Off the earth's long contour, her river-veins. By Seamus Heaney Weaned Contour Riverveins Earth Long

Tom Sleigh's poetry is hard-earned and well founded. I great admire the way it refuses to cut emotional corners and yet achieves a sense of lyric absolution. By Seamus Heaney Sleigh Tom Founded Poetry Hardearned

To begin with, I wanted that truth to life to possess a concrete reliability, and rejoiced most when the poem seemed most direct, an upfront representation of the world it stood in for or stood up for or stood its ground against. By Seamus Heaney Stood Reliability Direct Begin Wanted

If you go into an underground train in London - probably anywhere, but chiefly in London - there's that sense of almost entering a ghostly dimension. People are very still and quiet; they don't exchange many pleasantries. By Seamus Heaney London Dimension Underground Train Chiefly

Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained. By Seamus Heaney Dashed Maintained Started Hopes Hope

We talked about desire and being jealous,Our conversation a loose single gownOr a white picnic tablecloth spread outLike a book of manners in the wilderness. By Seamus Heaney Wilderness Talked Desire Jealousour Conversation

I suppose I'm saying that defiance is actually part of the lyric job By Seamus Heaney Job Suppose Defiance Part Lyric

If poetry and the arts do anything, they can fortify your inner life, your inwardness. By Seamus Heaney Life Inwardness Poetry Arts Fortify

My language and my sensibility are yearning to admit a kind of religious or transcendent dimension. But then there's the reality: there's no Heaven, no afterlife of the sort we were promised, and no personal God. By Seamus Heaney Dimension Language Sensibility Yearning Admit

I think of the bog as a feminine goddess-ridden ground, rather like the territory of Ireland itself. By Seamus Heaney Ireland Ground Bog Feminine Goddessridden

Dylan Thomas is now as much a case history as a chapter in the history of poetry. By Seamus Heaney Thomas Dylan Poetry History Case

Nowadays, what an award gives is a sense of solidarity with the poetry guild, as it were: sustenance coming from the assent of your peers on the judging panel. By Seamus Heaney Nowadays Guild Sustenance Panel Award

I credit poetry for making this space-walk possible. By Seamus Heaney Credit Poetry Making Spacewalk

There's never going to be a united Ireland, you know. By Seamus Heaney Ireland United

At home in Ireland, there's a habit of avoidance, an ironical attitude towards the authority figure. By Seamus Heaney Ireland Avoidance Figure Home Habit

A person from Northern Ireland is naturally cautious. By Seamus Heaney Northern Ireland Cautious Person Naturally

I don't think my intelligence is naturally analytic or political. By Seamus Heaney Political Intelligence Naturally Analytic

I want away to the house of death, to my father under the low, clay roof. By Seamus Heaney Death Low Clay Roof House

Write whatever you like! By Seamus Heaney Write

It is very true to say that work done by writers is quite often an attempt to give solid expression to that which is bothering them ... They feel they have got it right if they express the stress. By Seamus Heaney True Work Writers Attempt Give

Poetry is what we do to break bread with the dead. By Seamus Heaney Poetry Dead Break Bread

I suppose you could say my father's world was Thomas Hardy and my mother's D.H. Lawrence. By Seamus Heaney Thomas Hardy Lawrence Suppose Father

The next move is always the test. By Seamus Heaney Test Move

I think childhood is, generally speaking, a preparation for disappointment. By Seamus Heaney Generally Speaking Disappointment Childhood Preparation

I shall gain glory or die. By Seamus Heaney Die Gain Glory

The problem as you get older ... is that you become more self-aware. At the same time, you have to surprise yourself. There's no way of arranging the surprise, so it is tricky. By Seamus Heaney Older Selfaware Problem Surprise Time

But even so, none of the news of these world-spasms entered me as terror. By Seamus Heaney Terror Worldspasms Entered

The kind of poet who founds and reconstitutes values is somebody like Yeats or Whitman - these are public value-founders. By Seamus Heaney Whitman Yeats Valuefounders Kind Poet

Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear. By Seamus Heaney Strange Fear Huge

I rhymeTo see myself, to set the darkness echoing. By Seamus Heaney Echoing Rhymeto Set Darkness

Anybody serious about poetry knows how hard it is to achieve anything worthwhile in it. By Seamus Heaney Poetry Hard Achieve Worthwhile

Eternal life can mean utter reverence for life itself. By Seamus Heaney Eternal Life Utter Reverence

In fact, in lyric poetry, truthfulness becomes recognizable as a ring of truth within the medium itself. By Seamus Heaney Fact Poetry Truthfulness Lyric Recognizable

Poetry is always slightly mysterious, and you wonder what is your relationship to it. By Seamus Heaney Poetry Mysterious Slightly Relationship

Be advised my passport's green.No glass of ours was ever raisedto toast the Queen. By Seamus Heaney Queen Advised Passport Greenno Glass

In the United States, in poetry workshops, it's now quite a thing to make graduate students learn poems by heart. By Seamus Heaney States United Workshops Heart Poetry

You yourself don't have to be shaken by mortal danger in order to feel your mortality. By Seamus Heaney Mortality Shaken Mortal Danger Order

The end of art is peace. By Seamus Heaney Peace End Art

Which would be better, what sticks or what falls through? Or does the choice itself create the value? By Seamus Heaney Sticks Falls Choice Create

I came from a farming background, and my career was teaching. By Seamus Heaney Background Teaching Farming Career

Two buckets were easier carried than one. / I grew up in between. By Seamus Heaney Buckets Easier Carried Grew

I always believed that whatever had to be written would somehow get itself written. By Seamus Heaney Written Believed

I've always associated the moment of writing with a moment of lift, of joy, of unexpected reward. By Seamus Heaney Moment Lift Joy Reward Writing

Your temperament is what you write with, but it's also how you deal with the world. By Seamus Heaney World Temperament Write Deal

Sonnet is about movement in a form. By Seamus Heaney Sonnet Form Movement

By God, the old man could handle a spade.Just like his old man. By Seamus Heaney God Man Handle Spadejust

The experimental poetry thing is not my thing. It's a programme of the avant-garde: basically a refusal of the kind of poetry I write. By Seamus Heaney Thing Poetry Experimental Avantgarde Basically

You carried your own burden and very soon your symptoms of creeping privilege disappeared. By Seamus Heaney Disappeared Carried Burden Symptoms Creeping

I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world. By Seamus Heaney World Case Poems Changed Change

The murder of Sean Brown hurt my soul. By Seamus Heaney Sean Brown Soul Murder Hurt

We go to poetry, we go to literature in general, to be forwarded within ourselves. By Seamus Heaney Poetry General Literature Forwarded

I've said it before about the Nobel Prize: it's like being struck by a more or less benign avalanche. It was unexpected, unlooked for, and extraordinary. By Seamus Heaney Prize Nobel Avalanche Struck Benign

Wherever that man went, he went gratefully. By Seamus Heaney Gratefully Man

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center. By Seamus Heaney Center Begun Life Series Ripples

Only the very stupid or the very deprived can any longer help knowing that the documents of civilization have been written in blood and tears, blood and tears no less real for being very remote. By Seamus Heaney Blood Tears Remote Stupid Deprived

Poetry is a domestic art, most itself when most at home. By Seamus Heaney Poetry Art Home Domestic

I spend almost every morning with mail. By Seamus Heaney Mail Spend Morning

There is risk and truth to yourselves and the world before you. By Seamus Heaney Risk Truth World

The way we are living, timorous or bold, will have been our life. By Seamus Heaney Living Timorous Bold Life

I've nothing against the Queen personally. I had lunch at the Palace once upon a time. By Seamus Heaney Queen Personally Palace Time Lunch

I'm very conscious that people dear to me are alive in my imagination - poets in particular. By Seamus Heaney Imagination Poets Conscious People Dear

Even if the last move did not succeed, the inner command says move again. By Seamus Heaney Succeed Move Command

For every one of us, living in this worldmeans waiting for our end. By Seamus Heaney Living End Worldmeans Waiting

Words ... To lure the tribal shoals to epigram / And order. By Seamus Heaney Words Epigram Order Lure Tribal

All I know is a door into the dark By Seamus Heaney Dark Door

One doesn't want one's identity coerced. By Seamus Heaney Coerced Identity

God is a foreman with certain definite views Who orders life in shifts of work and leisure. By Seamus Heaney God Leisure Foreman Definite Views

In poetry, everything can be faked but the intensity of utterance. By Seamus Heaney Poetry Utterance Faked Intensity

I drink to keep body and soul apart. By Seamus Heaney Drink Body Soul

History says, Don't hopeOn this side of the grave,But then, once in a lifetimeThe longed-for tidal waveOf justice can rise up,And hope and history rhyme By Seamus Heaney Rhyme History Hopeon Side Gravebut

You can have Irish identity in the north and also have your Irish passport. By Seamus Heaney Irish Passport Identity North

To work, her dumb lunge says,is to move a certain mass ... through a certain distance,is to pull your weight and feelexact and equal to it.Feel dragged upon. And buoyant. By Seamus Heaney Work Mass Dumb Lunge Saysis

Poetry is language in orbit. By Seamus Heaney Poetry Orbit Language

The experiment of poetry, as far as I am concerned, happens when the poem carries you beyond where you could have reasonably expected to go. By Seamus Heaney Poetry Concerned Experiment Poem Carries

I believe we are put here to improve civilisation. By Seamus Heaney Civilisation Put Improve

My passport's green. By Seamus Heaney Green Passport

Don't have the veins bulging in your biro. By Seamus Heaney Biro Veins Bulging