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B.A English Literature
[2nd Year, 3rd Semester]
British Literature
1.4. Easter 1916 by
W.B. Yeats
About Poet:
William Butler Yeats, (born on June 13,
1865 in Dublin, Ireland and died on January 28, 1939 in France), Irish poet,
dramatist, and prose writer. He was appointed to the Irish Senate in 1922. He
received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
His first volume of verse appeared in
1887. Together with Lady Gregory he founded the Irish Theatre, which was to
become the Abbey Theatre.
His poetry, especially the volumes The
Wild Swans at Coole (1919), The Tower (1928), The Winding Stair and Other Poems
(1933), and Last Poems and Plays (1940), made him one of the outstanding and
most influential twentieth-century poets writing in English.
His
recurrent themes are the contrast of art and life, masks, cyclical theories of
life (the symbol of the winding stairs), and the ideal of beauty and ceremony
contrasting with the hubbub of modern life.
About Poem:
"Easter, 1916," was written by
the Irish poet W.B. Yeats to commemorate the Easter Rising in 1916, in which
Irish nationalists led a rebellion to win independence from British rule.
The poem is divided into four stanzas,
symbolizing the month of April, the fourth month. It is known for its famous
refrain, “All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.”
Historical Background:
On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, a
group of Irish nationalists proclaimed the establishment of the Irish Republic
and, along with some 1,600 followers, staged a rebellion against the British
government in Ireland. The rebels seized prominent buildings in Dublin and
clashed with British troops. The Rising is over on April 29th, 1916 - 1,350
people lie dead or wounded. A total of 3,430 men and 79 women are arrested by
the British. Easter, 1916 is a
reflection on this event.
Poem:
I have met them at
close of day
Coming with vivid
faces
From counter or desk
among grey
Eighteenth-century
houses.
I have passed with a
nod of the head
Or polite meaningless
words,
Or have lingered
awhile and said
Polite meaningless
words,
And thought before I
had done
Of a mocking tale or a
gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the
club,
Being certain that
they and I
But lived where motley
is worn:
All changed, changed
utterly:
A terrible beauty is
born.
That woman's days were
spent
In ignorant good-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew
shrill.
What voice more sweet
than hers
When, young and
beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a
school
And rode our wingèd
horse;
This other his helper
and friend
Was coming into his
force;
He might have won fame
in the end,
So sensitive his
nature seemed,
So daring and sweet
his thought.
This other man I had
dreamed
A drunken,
vainglorious lout.
He had done most
bitter wrong
To some who are near
my heart,
Yet I number him in
the song;
He, too, has resigned
his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been
changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is
born.
Hearts with one
purpose alone
Through summer and
winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living
stream.
The horse that comes
from the road,
The rider, the birds
that range
From cloud to tumbling
cloud,
Minute by minute they
change;
A shadow of cloud on
the stream
Changes minute by
minute;
A horse-hoof slides on
the brim,
And a horse plashes
within it;
The long-legged
moor-hens dive,
And hens to moor-cocks
call;
Minute by minute they
live:
The stone's in the
midst of all.
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of
the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part,
our part
To murmur name upon
name,
As a mother names her
child
When sleep at last has
come
On limbs that had run
wild.
What is it but
nightfall?
No, no, not night but
death;
Was it needless death
after all?
For England may keep
faith
For all that is done
and said.
We know their dream;
enough
To know they dreamed
and are dead;
And what if excess of
love
Bewildered them till
they died?
I write it out in a
verse—
MacDonagh and
MacBride
And Connolly and
Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is
worn,
Are changed, changed
utterly:
A terrible beauty is
born.
Summary:
In
the poem ‘Easter 1916’, Yeats was working through his feelings about the
revolutionary movement. The persistent refrain that ‘a terrible beauty is born’
turned out to be predictive. The execution of the leaders of the Easter Rising
by the British had the opposite effect to what the British had intended. The
brutal killings led to a reinvigoration of the Irish Republican movement rather
than its dissipation.
The poem sets out by showing the initial
ideological distance between Yeats and some of the revolutionary figures. Prior
to the rising, the poet would only exchange ‘polite meaningless words’ with the
revolutionaries. He would even indulge in ‘a mocking tale or gibe’ about their
political ambitions. However, this attitude changes with time, as he can now
see how:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
In the second stanza, the poet proceeds
to describe in greater detail the key figures involved in the Easter uprising.
But, he only alludes to them without actually listing their names. This stanza also
shows how Yeats was able to separate his private feelings towards some of the
revolutionary figures from the greater nationalist cause that the group was
pursuing. While Yeats had a positive regard for some of these republican
leaders, he despised Major John MacBride, who as the estranged husband of Maud
Gonne had abused both Gonne and their daughter during their married life. Although
Yeats considered MacBride to be a ‘vainglorious lout’ who had ‘done most bitter
wrong’ to Maud Gonne, who was once close to Yeats’ heart, he includes him in
his eulogy among those who have fallen for their republican ideals.
The third stanza of the poem differs
from the first two stanzas by abandoning the first-person narrative of ‘I’ and
moving to the natural realm of streams, clouds, and birds. The poet elaborates
on the theme of change and introduces the symbol of the ‘stone’, which opens
and closes the stanza. The images of clouds moving, seasons changing,
horse-hoof sliding are all characterized by their transience. Amid them, the
stone is a symbol of permanence and enduring strength. Yeats compares the
fixedness of the revolutionaries’ purpose to that of the stone. He feels that
their hearts are ‘enchanted to a stone’. The stone disturbs or ‘troubles’ ‘the
living stream’, a metaphor for how the steadfastness of their purpose contrasts
sharply with the shifting moods of the common people. The singularity of their
purpose, leading to their ultimate death, cut through the complacency and indifference
of everyday Irish society of the time.
The fourth and last stanza of the poem
resumes the first person narrative of the first and second stanzas. The stanza
returns to the image of the stony heart: ‘Too long a sacrifice/ Can make a stone
of the heart’, Yeats wrote, putting the determined struggle of Irish
republicans in the Easter Rising in the context of the long, turbulent history
of British colonialism in Ireland, as well as alluding to the immense
psychological costs of the long struggle for independence. Indeed, the poet cries,
‘O when may it suffice?’, and answering his own question with the line, ‘That
is heaven’s part’ (making an allusion to Shakespeare's play ‘Hamlet’ – the
parallel line occurs in Act I, scene V, regarding Gertrude's guilt: ‘Against
thy mother aught: leave her to heaven’). In Yeats’ schema, Heaven’s role is to
determine when the suffering will end and when the sacrifices are considered sufficient;
whilst the role of the people left behind is to forever remember the names of
those who had fallen in order to properly lay their wandering spirits to rest:
‘our part/ To murmur name upon name,/ as a mother names her child/ when sleep
at last has come/ On limbs that had run wild.’
In the second half of the last stanza,
the poet wonders whether the sacrifices were indeed warranted: ‘Was it needless
death after all?’, contemplating the possibility that the British might still allow
the ‘Home Rule Act 1914’ to come into force without the uprising. However,
Yeats made the point that what’s done was done. All that is important is to
remember the revolutionaries’ dream and carry on: ‘We know their dream; enough/
To know they dreamed and are dead.’ There is no point arguing over whether
these revolutionaries should or should not have acted so rashly for their cause
as they did.
In the end, the Yeats resigns to
commemorating the names of those fallen revolutionary figures, viz. Thomas
MacDonagh, John MacBride, James Connolly and Patrick Pearse, as eternal heroes
of the Irish Republican movement (symbolised by the colour green), with Yeats
adapting the final refrain to reflect the price these people paid to change the
course of Irish history:
I write it out in a verse –
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
The extent to which Yeats was willing to
eulogize the members of the Easter Rising can be seen in his usage of ‘green’
to commemorate these heroes, even though he generally abhors the use of the colour
green as a political symbol (Yeats's abhorrence was such that he forbade green
as the color of the binding of his books). In commemorating the names of the
revolutionaries in eloquent lamentation in the final stanza, including even his
love rival Major John MacBride, Yeats reconciled his personal private
sentiments towards some of the individuals involved with the larger nationalist
sentiments upheld and championed by the poem, even if there were
revolutionaries whose strategies he did not fully agree with. Yeats has an
interesting perspective on the historical significance of his poem, adding to
the tension of his recording. The revolutionaries ‘now and in time to be...are changed,
changed utterly’ – the knowledge of which shows Yeats’ astute insight into the
historical importance of his poetic memorial of these revolutionary figures.
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