---
title: "1 Prayed Blackbird Quotes By Seamus Heaney"
description: "1 Prayed Blackbird quotes by Seamus Heaney. Plus more from Seamus Heaney and more Prayed Blackbird sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b79/seamus-heaney-1711_bird_it-is-said-that-once-upon-a-time-st-kevi_237025.png"
---

> [“It is said that once upon a time St. Kevin was kneeling with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross in Glendalough. . . As Kevin knelt and prayed, a blackbird mistook his outstretched hand for some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/it-is-said-that-once-upon-a-time-st-kevin-was-kneeling-with-his-arms/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b79/seamus-heaney-1711_bird_it-is-said-that-once-upon-a-time-st-kevi_237025.png)

## More by Seamus Heaney

> [You had to come back to learn how to lose yourself, to be pilot and stray-witch, Hansel and Gretel in one.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/you-had-to-come-back-to-learn-how-to-lose-yourself-to-be-pilot-and/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [If self is a location, so is love: Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, Here and there and now…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/if-self-is-a-location-so-is-love-bearings-taken-markings-cardinal/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [I'm very conscious that people dear to me are alive in my imagination - poets in particular.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/i-m-very-conscious-that-people-dear-to-me-are-alive-in-my-imagination/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [Once I was on the job, once I had got started, I felt safe enough, but the anticipation made me tense.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/once-i-was-on-the-job-once-i-had-got-started-i-felt-safe-enough-but/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [You can have Irish identity in the north and also have your Irish passport.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/you-can-have-irish-identity-in-the-north-and-also-have-your-irish/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [The external reality and inner dynamic of happenings in Northern Ireland between 1968 and 1974 were symptomatic of change, violent change admittedly, but change…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/the-external-reality-and-inner-dynamic-of-happenings-in-northern/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [Hope for a great sea-change timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/hope-for-a-great-sea-change-timid-to-rebuke-and-too-petty-to-forgive/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [One of the very first poems I wrote was Docker That fist would drop a hammer on a Catholic and one of the sturdiest…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/one-of-the-very-first-poems-i-wrote-was-docker-that-fist-would-drop-a/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [Anything Can Happen is also, incidentally, a poem that arose from teaching. I'd talked about the Horace Ode (I, 34) \[on which the poem…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/anything-can-happen-is-also-incidentally-a-poem-that-arose-from/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [Poetry is always slightly mysterious, and you wonder what is your relationship to it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/poetry-is-always-slightly-mysterious-and-you-wonder-what-is-your/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [Sink every impulse like a bolt. Secure The bastion of sensation. Do not waver Into language. Do not waver in it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/sink-every-impulse-like-a-bolt-secure-the-bastion-of-sensation-do-not/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [Two buckets were easier carried than one. / I grew up in between.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/two-buckets-were-easier-carried-than-one-i-grew-up-in-between/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [I suppose I'm saying that defiance is actually part of the lyric job](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/i-suppose-i-m-saying-that-defiance-is-actually-part-of-the-lyric-job/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [“It is said that once upon a time St. Kevin was kneeling with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/it-is-said-that-once-upon-a-time-st-kevin-was-kneeling-with-his-arms/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

> [My father and mother had no sense of entitlement for their children.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/my-father-and-mother-had-no-sense-of-entitlement-for-their-children/)

[Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seamus-heaney/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "ItemList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prayed-blackbird/seamus-heaney/#itemlist",
            "name": "1 Prayed Blackbird Quotes By Seamus Heaney",
            "numberOfItems": 1,
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“It is said that once upon a time St. Kevin was kneeling with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross in Glendalough. . . As Kevin knelt and prayed, a blackbird mistook his outstretched hand for some kind of roost and swooped down upon it, laid a clutch of eggs in it and proceeded to nest in it as if it were the branch of a tree. Then, overcome with pity and constrained by his faith to love all creatures great and small, Kevin stayed immobile for hours and days and nights and weeks, holding out his hand until the eggs hatched and the fledging grew wings, true to life if subversive of common sense, at the intersection of natural process and the glimpsed ideal, at one and the same time a signpost and a reminder. Manifesting that order of poetry where we can at last grow up to that which we stored up as we grew.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Seamus Heaney"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seamus-heaney/it-is-said-that-once-upon-a-time-st-kevin-was-kneeling-with-his-arms/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b79/seamus-heaney-1711_bird_it-is-said-that-once-upon-a-time-st-kevi_237025.png",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b79/seamus-heaney-1711_bird_it-is-said-that-once-upon-a-time-st-kevi_237025.png",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b79/seamus-heaney-1711_bird_it-is-said-that-once-upon-a-time-st-kevi_237025.png",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“It is said that once upon a time St. Kevin was kneeling with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross…” — Seamus Heaney",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "CollectionPage",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prayed-blackbird/seamus-heaney/#webpage",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prayed-blackbird/seamus-heaney/",
            "name": "Prayed Blackbird Quotes by Seamus Heaney",
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "mainEntity": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prayed-blackbird/seamus-heaney/#itemlist"
            },
            "primaryImageOfPage": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b79/seamus-heaney-1711_bird_it-is-said-that-once-upon-a-time-st-kevi_237025.png"
            },
            "description": "1 Prayed Blackbird quotes by Seamus Heaney. Plus more from Seamus Heaney and more Prayed Blackbird sayings from other authors.",
            "breadcrumb": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prayed-blackbird/seamus-heaney/#breadcrumb"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prayed-blackbird/seamus-heaney/#breadcrumb",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Topics",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "Prayed Blackbird",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prayed-blackbird/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 5,
                    "name": "Seamus Heaney",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prayed-blackbird/seamus-heaney/"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```