Seamus Heaney Quote
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.
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.
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About Seamus Heaney
Heaney is buried at St. Mary's Church, Bellaghy, Northern Ireland. The headstone bears the epitaph "Walk on air against your better judgement", from his poem "The Gravel Walks".