Text of the Poem | Casting and Gathering By Seamus Heaney | Eureka Study Aids

for Ted Hughes

1. Years and years ago, these sounds took sides: 

2. On the left bank a green sild tapered cast

3. Went whispering through the air, saying hush

4. And lush, entirely free, no matter whether

5. It swished above the hayfield or the river. 

6. On the right bank, like a speeded-up corncrake, 

7. A sharp ratcheting kept on and on

8. Cutting across the stillness as another

9. Fisherman gathered line-lengths off his reel. 

10. I am still standing there, awake and dreamy. 

11. I have grown older and can see them both

12. Moving their arms and rods, working away, 

13. Each one absorbed, proofed by the sounds he's making. 

14. One sound is saying, 'You aren't worth tuppence, 

15. But neither is anybody. So watch Number One!'

16. The other says, 'Go with it! Give and swerve. 

17. You are everything you feel beside the river.' 

18. I love hushed air. I trust contrariness. 

19. Years and years go past and I cannot move

20. For I see that when one man casts, the other gathers

21. And then vice versa, without changing sides.