Sweeney Astray

by Seamus Heaney

  And then Moling said:

  85

  I am standing beside Sweeney’s tomb

  remembering him. Wherever he

  migrated in flight from home

  will always be dear to me.

  Because Sweeney loved Glen Bolcain

  I learned to love it, too. He’ll miss

  the fresh streams tumbling down,

  the green beds of watercress.

  He would drink his sup of water from

  the well yonder we have called

  the Madman’s Well; now his name

  keeps brimming in its sandy cold.

  I waited long but knew he’d come.

  I welcomed, sped him as a guest.

  With holy viaticum

  I limed him for the Holy Ghost.

  Because Sweeney was a pilgrim

  to the stoup of every well

  and every green-frilled, cress-topped stream,

  their water’s his memorial.

  Now, if it be the will of God,

  rise, Sweeney, take this guiding hand

  that has to lay you in the sod

  and draw the dark blinds of the ground.

  I ask a blessing, by Sweeney’s grave.

  His memory flutters in my breast.

  His soul roosts in the tree of love.

  His body sinks in its clay nest.

  86 After that, Sweeney rose out of his swoon. Moling took him by the hand and both went towards the door of the church. When they reached the door Sweeney leaned his shoulders against the jamb and breathed a loud sigh. His spirit fled to heaven and his body was given an honourable burial by Moling.

  87 These have been some of the stories about the adventures of Sweeney, son of Colman Cuar, king of Dal-Arie.

  BOOKS BY SEAMUS HEANEY

  POETRY

  Death of a Naturalist

  Door into the Dark

  Wintering Out

  North

  Field Work

  Poems 1965–1975

  Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish

  Station Island

  The Haw Lantern

  Selected Poems 1966–1987

  Seeing Things

  Sweeney’s Flight (with photographs by Rachel Giese)

  The Spirit Level

  CRITICISM

  Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968–78

  The Government of the Tongue

  The Redress of Poetry

  PLAYS

  The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes

  TRANSLATIONS

  Laments: Poems of Jan Kochanowski (with Stanislaw Baranczak)

  Copyright © 1983 by Seamus Heaney

  All rights reserved

  First published in Ireland in 1983 by

  Field Day Theatre Company Limited, Derry

  First American edition, 1984

  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

  Heaney, Seamus. / Sweeney astray.

  1. Suibhne Geilt—Poetry. 2. Magh Rath, Battle of, 637—Poetry. I. Buile Suibhne Geilt. II. Title.

  PR6058.E2S9 1984 821'.914 84-1512

  eISBN 9781466855809

  First eBook edition: October 2013