How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Page)
Quote #7
[…] the love I was good at seemed to have been only/the love of my craft and nature; yes, I was kind,/but with such certitude it made others lonely,/and with such bent industry it had made me blind. (XLVIII.i.241)
It's an age-old problem: Man spends too much time working/writing/learning and neglects everything else. It's a harsh reality that the narrator faces about his ideas of love, but at least that trip to Hell gave him some useful epiphanies.
Quote #8
She was his orb and sceptre, the shire of his peace,/the hedges aisling England, lanes ending in spires,/rooks that lift and scatter from oaks threshing like seas,/the black notes of sparrows on telegraph wires,/all these were in his letters (LII.i.261)
It's too bad that Major Plunkett doesn't think of Maud like this before she dies, but at least he's able to admit her importance in his life. She has become the best image of his lost homeland, everything that he loved and valued about the place. Note the use of the world "aisling," which is particularly Irish and means dream or vision. Maud has become his heavenly Celtic woman. Better late than never, we guess.
Quote #9
"Love is good, but the love of your own people is/greater." (LVI.iii.284)
Omeros has a deep conversation with the narrator about the proper use of war (ideally over a woman). His declaration here jibes with what the narrator's father told him in the beginning of his journeys: His talent exists to tell the story of the people he loves.