One of the very first poems I wrote was Docker That fist would drop a hammer on a Catholic and one of the sturdiest was Requiem for the Croppies, written 50 years after 1916 [the year of the Easter Rising]. Being responsible and what it means, what it demands, have indeed preoccupied me maybe too much. But this is it, this is the thing, this is what you're up against.
Seamus HeaneyThere is not built-in meaning to anything, we are free to add any meaning we choose to give it.
Seamus HeaneyAnyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.
Seamus Heaney