Seamus Heaney Quote

Bebeorh þé ðone bealo-níð, Béowulf léofa,secg betsta, ond þé þæt sélre gecéos,éce rǽdas; ofer-hýda ne gým,mǽre cempa! Nú is þines mægnes blǽdáne hwíle; eft sóna biðþæt þec ádl oððe ecg eafoþes getwǽfeð,oððe fýres feng oððe flódes wylmoððe gripe méces oððe gáres flihtoððe atol yldo, oððe éagena bearhtmforsiteð ond forsworceð; semninga bið,þæt ðec, dryht-guma, déað oferswýðeð.O flower of warriors, beware of that trap.Choose, dear Béowulf, the better part,eternal rewards. Do not give way to pride.For a brief while your strength is in bloombut it fades quickly; and soon there will followillness or the sword to lay you low,or a sudden fire or a surge of wateror jabbing blade or javelin from the airor repellent age. Your piercing eyewill dim and darken; and death will arrive,dear warrior, to sweep you away.

Seamus Heaney

Bebeorh þé ðone bealo-níð, Béowulf léofa,secg betsta, ond þé þæt sélre gecéos,éce rǽdas; ofer-hýda ne gým,mǽre cempa! Nú is þines mægnes blǽdáne hwíle; eft sóna biðþæt þec ádl oððe ecg eafoþes getwǽfeð,oððe fýres feng oððe flódes wylmoððe gripe méces oððe gáres flihtoððe atol yldo, oððe éagena bearhtmforsiteð ond forsworceð; semninga bið,þæt ðec, dryht-guma, déað oferswýðeð.O flower of warriors, beware of that trap.Choose, dear Béowulf, the better part,eternal rewards. Do not give way to pride.For a brief while your strength is in bloombut it fades quickly; and soon there will followillness or the sword to lay you low,or a sudden fire or a surge of wateror jabbing blade or javelin from the airor repellent age. Your piercing eyewill dim and darken; and death will arrive,dear warrior, to sweep you away.

Related Quotes

About Seamus Heaney

Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is Death of a Naturalist (1966), his first major published volume. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland, have said that he was "the greatest poet of our age". Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller." Upon his death in 2013, The Independent described him as "probably the best-known poet in the world".
Heaney was born in the townland of Tamniaran between Castledawson and Toomebridge, Northern Ireland. His family moved to nearby Bellaghy when he was a boy. He became a lecturer at St. Joseph's College in Belfast in the early 1960s, after attending Queen's University, and began to publish poetry. He lived in Sandymount, Dublin, from 1976 until his death. He lived part-time in the United States from 1981 to 2006. He was a professor at Harvard from 1981 to 1997, and their Poet in Residence from 1988 to 2006. From 1989 to 1994, he was also the Professor of Poetry at Oxford. In 1996 he was made a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and in 1998 was bestowed the title Saoi of Aosdána. He received numerous prestigious awards.
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".