I rhyme… to see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

Poetry is language in orbit.

I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.

Not to Learn Irish is to miss the opportunity of understanding what life in this country has meant and could mean in a better future. It is to cut oneself off from ways of being at home. If we regard self-understanding, mutual understanding, imaginative enhancement, cultural diversity and a tolerant political atmosphereas a desirable attainments, we should remember that a knowledge of the Irish language is an essential element in their realisation.

In off the moors, down through the mist beams, god-cursed Grendel came greedily loping.

I've nothing against the Queen personally: I had lunch at the Palace once upon a time.

But even so, none of the news of these world-spasms entered me as terror.