Can't thank you enough for those last two posts, Padraig, but thank you nevertheless.
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Yes, just caught up with them, marvellous stuff.Comment
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I came across this excellent article from a few years back by Fintan O'Toole entitled 'Comfort is Best Found in Seamus Heaney's poems'. Thought I would post it.
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Thanks for posting it, John. I see it was written for the third anniversary of Heaney's death. I missed it at the time so was glad to have it now. O course Fintan O'Toole would have had a great word for him, as I think all we Irish have. We all too, have a great liking for anniversaries, and I do not mean 1690 or 1916, though I'm in a minority there! I'm thinking, though, that Seamus Heaney will still be as fresh in my memory when my time comes as it is now.Comment
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I've just found this, G. Have you seen it. Amazing! How did we not know?
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Aeneas meets Dido in the Underworld
. . . still nursing her raw wound,
Dido of Carthage strayed in the great forest.
As soon as the Trojan came close and made out
Her dimly wavering form among the shadows,
He was like one who sees or imagines he has seen
A new moon rising up among the clouds
On the first day of the month; there and then
He wept and spoke these loving tender words:
'Unhappy Dido! So the news I got was true,
That you had left the world, had taken a sword
And bade your last farewell. Was I, O was I to blame
For your death? I swear by the stars, by the powers
Above and by any truth there may be under earth,
I embarked from your shore, my queen, unwillingly.
Orders from the gods, which compel me now
To travel among shades in this mouldering world,
This bottomless pit of night, dictated
Obedience then as well. How could I believe
My going would devastate you with such grief?
Stay a moment, don't slip out of our sight.
Is there someone you are trying to avoid?
These words I am saying to you are the last
Fate will permit me, ever'.
Pleading like this,
Tears welling up inside him, Aeneas tried
To placate her fiery spirit and soften
Her fierce gaze, but she, averting her face,
Her eyes fixed steadily on the ground, turned
And showed no sign of having heard, no more
Than if her features had been carved in flint
Or Parian marble. At length she swept away
And fled, implacable, into the dappling shadows
Of the grove, where Sychaeus, her husband
In another earlier time, feels for her pain
And reciprocates the love she bears him still;
While Aeneas, no less stricken by the injustice
Of her fate, gazes into the distance after her,
Gazes through tears, and pities her as she goes.
from Aeneid, Book VI. Translated by Seamus Heaney.
The 'Final' version, one month before his death, but not, it is thought by family, the 'Finished' version.Comment
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Yes, good to read it again, but does it feel 'finished', to you? I think he might have freshened some of the phrasing here and there, before declaring it finished.Comment
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Far be it from me, silvestrione . . . but I do remember his revered Fr. McGlinchey - though a couple of years ahead of SH I shared the same Latin teacher - and his love of finding just the right words for his students to express the meaning of their translations; and how he tried to get them to enjoy the lilt and run of the Latin, just as he did. I have no doubt it was students like SH he was directly addressing, and Seamus never stopped striving.Comment
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A note to recommend a new book on Heaney - called, On Seamus Heaney. By historian Roy Foster it is short, succinct and takes a new look at the life and the poetry I thought I knew. Has a good index and helpful notes, as well as constant reference to very many of the poems. Keep your copies of his books close by, including the Stepping Stones interviews.Comment
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I was pleased to read that Joe Biden was a Seamus Heaney fan and it would appear that the passage from 'The Cure at Troy' is his favourite poem. I saw him quote this stirring piece, but hadn't realised it was Heaney.
Last edited by johncorrigan; 31-01-21, 13:43.Comment
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The quote of Presidents!Originally posted by johncorrigan View Post
It is also the only quote I know from The Cure at Troy, a book I do not possess. However the paperback is available at £8.49, which will do me; I'll leave the hardback for you John - only one available at £330. No, don't thank me, I want you to have it.Comment
I was hooked!
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