ANTAEUS BY Seamus Heaney

I am reading North by Seamus Heaney, and love this poem: “Antaeus” symbolic of strength from being rooted, grounded, and down to earth.

by Seamus Heaney

When I lie on the ground 

I rise flushed as a rose in the morning.

In fights I arrange a fall on the ring 

To rub myself with sand.

That is operative

As an elixir. I cannot be weaned

Off the earth’s long contour, her river-veins.

Down here in my cave

Girded with root and rock

I am cradled in the dark that wombed me

And nurtured in every artery

Like a small hillock.

Let each new hero come

Seeking the golden apples and Atlas:

He must wrestle with me before he pass

Into that realm of fame

Among sky-born and royal.

He may well throw me and renew my birth

But let him not plan, lifting me off the earth,

My elevation, my fall.