"Hope and history rhyme" has been a recurring motif throughout the Presidential campaign of former Vice President, now Presidential-Elect Joe Biden. The words come from The Cure At Troy, a famous translation of Sophocles' Philoctetes by Irish poet Seamus Heaney.
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.
You can hear Biden recite the relevant verses in the video above.
Biden's Irish-American background has been widely celebrated across the Atlantic. The Irish public broadcasting network Raidió Teilifís Éireann signed off with a reference to Biden's Heaney affections over the weekend. The Irish-language network TG4 also had some fun with Biden. ("Uachtarán" is Irish for "President," but "Uachtar reoite" is "Ice cream.")
A BBC video clip (date unknown) also began circulating after the announcement of Biden as the presumptive winner of the 2020 US Presidential Election. "A quick word for the BBC?" asks a correspondent, to which Biden cheekily replies, "BBC? I'm Irish."
