Seamus Heaney Quote
I was six when I first saw kittens drown.Dan Taggart pitched them, ‘the scraggy wee shits’,Into a bucket; a frail metal sound, Soft paws scraping like mad. But their tiny dinWas soon soused. They were slung on the snoutOf the pump and the water pumped in. ‘Sure isn’t it better for them now?’ Dan said.Like wet gloves they bobbed and shone till he sluicedThem out on the dunghill, glossy and dead. Suddenly frightened, for days I sadly hungRound the yard, watching the three sogged remainsTurn mealy and crisp as old summer dung Until I forgot them. But the fear came backWhen Dan trapped big rats, snared rabbits, shot crowsOr, with a sickening tug, pulled old hens’ necks. Still, living displaces false sentimentsAnd now, when shrill pups are prodded to drown,I just shrug, ‘Bloody pups’. It makes sense: ‘Prevention of cruelty’ talk cuts ice in townWhere they consider death unnatural,But on well-run farms pests have to be kept down.
I was six when I first saw kittens drown.Dan Taggart pitched them, ‘the scraggy wee shits’,Into a bucket; a frail metal sound, Soft paws scraping like mad. But their tiny dinWas soon soused. They were slung on the snoutOf the pump and the water pumped in. ‘Sure isn’t it better for them now?’ Dan said.Like wet gloves they bobbed and shone till he sluicedThem out on the dunghill, glossy and dead. Suddenly frightened, for days I sadly hungRound the yard, watching the three sogged remainsTurn mealy and crisp as old summer dung Until I forgot them. But the fear came backWhen Dan trapped big rats, snared rabbits, shot crowsOr, with a sickening tug, pulled old hens’ necks. Still, living displaces false sentimentsAnd now, when shrill pups are prodded to drown,I just shrug, ‘Bloody pups’. It makes sense: ‘Prevention of cruelty’ talk cuts ice in townWhere they consider death unnatural,But on well-run farms pests have to be kept down.
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About Seamus Heaney
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".