Home > Work > The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes
1 " Believe that a further shore is reachable from here. "
― Seamus Heaney , The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes
2 " 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 woundsAnd flashing them around like decorations. I hate it, I always hated it, and I amA part of it myself. "
3 " Now it’s high watermark and floodtide in the heartand time to go.The sea-nymphs in the spraywill be the chorus now.What’s left to say?Suspect too much sweet-talkbut never close your mind.It was a fortunate windthat blew me here. I leavehalf-ready to believe that a crippled trust might walkand the half-true rhyme is love. "
4 " Human beings suffer.They torture one anotherThey get hurt and they get hard.No poem or play or songCan fully right a wrongInflicted and endured.History says, Don't hopeOn this side of the grave,But then, once in a lifetimeThe longed-for tidal waveOf justice can rise upAnd hope and history rhyme.So hope for a great sea-changeOn the far side of revenge.Believe that a farther shoreIs reachable from here.Believe in miraclesAnd cures and healing wells.Call miracle self-healing,The utter self-revealingDouble-take of feeling.If there's fire on the mountainAnd lightening and stormAnd a god speaks from the skyThat means someone is hearingThe outcry and the birth-cryOf new life at its term.It means once in a lifetimeThat justice can rise upAnd hope and history rhyme. "
5 " History says, Don't hopeOn this side of the grave,But then, once in a lifetimeThe longed-for tidal waveOf justice can rise upAnd hope and history rhyme. "
6 " War has an appetiteFor human goodness but it won't touch the bad. "
7 " Life is shaky. Never, son, forgetHow risky and slippy things are in this world.Walk easy when the jug's full, and don't everTake your luck for granted. Count your blessingsAnd always be ready to pity other people. "
8 " History says, Don't hopeOn this side of the grave.But then, once in a lifetimeThe longed-for tidal waveOf justice can rise up,And hope and history rhyme. "
9 " And hope and history rhyme. "
