A public expectation, it has to be said, not of poetry as such but of political positions variously approvable by mutually disapproving groups.

At home in Ireland, there's a habit of avoidance, an ironical attitude towards the authority figure.

The gift of writing is to be self-forgetful...

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

When I was teaching, I gave a lot of my mind and anxiety to it. There was always something clenched and anxious in me until the classes were over.

All I know is a door into the dark

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