Scott Edward Anderson's Poetry Blog

Life in America today feels chaotic—unmoored, even. Not long ago, we were enjoying the strongest post-pandemic economy in the world and, for all our flaws, still held a place of trust and respect among nations. Now, it feels as though we’re in retreat from the very values that have defined us for nearly 250 years. Our economy is shaky, our moral compass seems scrambled, and our global standing has taken a nosedive. Former allies are pushed aside, while historic adversaries are reframed as potential friends. How the heck did we get here?

For some time now, I’ve felt we’re living through the final convulsions of an outdated, constricted worldview—a last gasp, if you will. The future, by contrast, looks vibrant in its diversity, and stronger for it. But the old mindset is panicking. It scapegoats the “other” for its own decline, retreats into fear, and recoils from empathy, love, and peace. It would rather enforce authorityrrany—a toxic blend of authoritarianism and tyranny—than allow for genuine autonomy. In clinging to control, it seeks to impose a narrow minority’s will on a richly diverse majority.

Still, the tide is too strong against it. I believe the day will come when we look back on this era and see it clearly for what it was: a necessary darkness before the dawn. As poet Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) wrote, “the longed-for tidal wave of justice” will break, and when it does, it will wash away the debris of this fearful, closed-off way of thinking.

That famous line comes from Heaney’s The Cure at Troy, his poetic reimagining of a play by the ancient Greek dramatist Sophocles. The work wrestles with questions of morality, deceit, political compromise, suffering, and the hope of healing. Heaney’s brilliance lies in how he connects these ancient themes to the struggles of our modern lives. Lately, I’ve been thinking often of the stanza containing that “tidal wave” line—and the even more quoted line about hope and history rhyming. I decided to revisit the full passage, and what I found feels especially fitting in these troubled times:

From The Cure at Troy

Human beings suffer,
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured

…

History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there’s fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.
It means once in a lifetime
That justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

—Seamus Heaney