What does he know, the man at the wall,
how Sweeney survived his downfall?
Going stooped through the long grass.
A sup of water. Watercress.

Summering where herons stalk.
Wintering out among wolf-packs.
Plumed in twigs that green and fall.
What does he know, the man at the wall?

I who once camped among mad friends
in Bolcain, that happy glen of winds
and wind-borne echoes, live miserable
beyond the dreams of the man at the wall.

~ Seamus Heaney, from Sweeney Astray