Playing up to both Biden’s Irish heritage and his love of poetry, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda recited a poem by Seamus Heaney in honour of the new president’s inauguration.Â
One of a multitude of famous faces to partake in the inauguration day festivities, Broadway star and Hollywood actor Lin-Manuel Miranda offered up his warmest wishes to the new president.
Congratulating him on a race well run (where my Hamilton fanatics at?!), the playwright took the opportunity to recite a few words – choosing The Cure at Troy, a poem by Irish poet Seamus Heaney, as his contribution on the day.
A poem previously quoted by former US president Bill Clinton, Biden also referenced it in his presidential acceptance speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. It reads:
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 the 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 a further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles.
And cures and healing wellsCall miracle self-healing,
The utter self revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there’s fire on the mountain
And lightening and storm
And a god speaks from the skyThat 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.
It's day one and we are not throwing away our shot at unifying the country and fighting for a better future for American families. Thank you @Lin_Manuel for your beautiful performance at #Inauguration2021. pic.twitter.com/VDgbTqjksd
— Biden Inaugural Committee (@BidenInaugural) January 21, 2021
A particular favourite of his, Biden has been known to regularly quote Irish poetry in his speeches, claiming that he does so because “they’re the best poets in the world”.
