The Cure at Troy Quotes

“Now it’s high watermark
and floodtide in the heart
and time to go.
The sea-nymphs in the spray
will be the chorus now.
What’s left to say?

Suspect too much sweet-talk
but never close your mind.
It was a fortunate wind
that blew me here. I leave
half-ready to believe
that a crippled trust might walk

and the half-true rhyme is love.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“Believe that a further shore is reachable from here.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“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 wounds
And flashing them around like decorations.
I hate it, I always hated it, and I am
A part of it myself.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“Human beings suffer.
They torture one another
They get hurt and they get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a farther shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing,
The utter self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
And lightening and storm
And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.
It means once in a lifetime
That justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“The gods do grant immunity, you see, To everybody except the true and the just.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“Let me educate you In one short sentence. War has an appetite For human goodness but it won’t touch the bad.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“There’s a whole economy of kindness Possible in the world; befriend a friend And the chance of it’s increased and multiplied.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“Terrible times. I managed to come through But I never healed. My whole life has been Just one long cruel parody.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“Life is shaky. Never, son, forget
How risky and slippy things are in this world.
Walk easy when the jug's full, and don't ever
Take your luck for granted. Count your blessings
And always be ready to pity other people.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“War has an appetite
For human goodness but it won't touch the bad.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“Human beings suffer,
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a farther shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there’s fire on the mountain
And lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.
It means once in a lifetime
That justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“Human beings suffer, They torture one another, They get hurt and get hard. No poem or play or song Can fully right a wrong Inflicted and endured.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“Candour before canniness. Doing the right thing And not just saying it.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“How am I to keep on praising gods If they keep disappointing me, and never Match the good on my side with their good?”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes

“And hope and history rhyme.”
― Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes