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. Within a week,
the insurrection had been suppressed and more than 2,000 people were dead
or injured. The leaders of the rebellion soon were executed. Initially, there was
little support from the Irish people for the Easter Rising; however, public
opinion later shifted and the executed leaders were hailed as martyrs. In
1921, a treaty was signed that in 1922 established the Irish Free State, which
eventually became the modern-day Republic of Ireland.

Easter 1916, poem by William Butler Yeats, published separately in 1916 and collected
in Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921). It commemorates the martyrs of the Easter
Rising, an insurrection against the British government in Ireland in 1916, which resulted
in the execution of several Irish nationalists whom Yeats knew personally.

The poem examines the nature of heroism and its incongruity with everyday life.
“Easter, 1916” Themes
Heroism and Bravery

In “Easter, 1916,” the speaker is moved to admire the heroism and bravery displayed by
the Irish rebels in trying to throw off British rule—even though he didn’t wholly admire
or agree with the rebels beforehand. The poem chronicles the rebels’ flaws and the
speaker’s earlier, dismissive attitude towards them (and it's worth noting that the poet
himself, historically, was also critical of extreme nationalism and didn’t initially support
the violence of the Easter Rising). But these conflicted, critical feelings only makes the
speaker’s respect for the rebels all the more meaningful. The bravery and commitment
the rebels displayed in dying for their ideals is so great that it compels even the skeptical
speaker to admire it. The poem shows that true heroism can transcend personal flaws and,
as the refrain says, transform a person utterly.

In the poem’s first stanza, the speaker explains how he used to see the rebels as foolish
or hardly worth noticing. The speaker did not take the rebels seriously in the past. He
only exchanged “polite meaningless” small talk with them or mocked them to his friends
with a “gibe” (a joke). The reference to “motley,” the clothes of a jester, shows that he
saw them as comic figures.

In the second stanza, the speaker then details the individual flaws of certain rebels,
revealing how they irritated or angered him. The speaker criticizes a certain woman for
lack of judgment, possibly brought on by her devotion to political “argument.” He also
calls one rebel a “drunken, vainglorious” man, and informs the reader that this man had
wronged people that he, the speaker, cares for.

But ultimately, the speaker’s admiration for the rebels overcomes his criticisms. He
affirms that their bravery in being willing to die for their cause has transformed them into
heroic figures, figures that his poem must honor. The first two stanzas end by saying that
the rebels have been changed or transformed, that “a terrible beauty is born.” The terror is
the high price the rebels had to pay for seeking Ireland’s freedom; it refers to their deaths,
and the deaths of many others in the violence. But at the same time, this beauty refers to
the heroism the rebels revealed in being willing to die for this cause.

In the fourth stanza, the speaker asks whether this high cost was truly necessary: “was it
needless death after all?” It is possible that England would have granted Ireland freedom
without this rebellion. The rebels may have been misguided in instigating a violent
uprising. But the speaker again puts aside this criticism to honor them for their bravery:
“We know their dream; enough / To know they dreamed and are dead.” In other words,
regardless of their flaws of judgment or character, it is enough to make them heroic that
they were willing to die for their cause. The speaker honors the rebels as heroes by listing
out their names in the final lines of the poem and affirming again how they have been
“changed utterly.” This act of bravery means they are no longer defined by the flaws the
speaker noted earlier. They have been transformed from people the speaker criticized to
people the speaker must admire forever, “[n]ow and in time to be."

Personal Fulfillment vs. Public Sacrifice

In “Easter, 1916,” the speaker is conflicted about the value of sacrificing everything for
the sake of a public cause. He regrets the personal gifts and opportunities the rebels
abandoned when they devoted themselves to political action. He also suggests that total
devotion to a cause can make a person lose their sense of human feeling and judgment.
 Thus even as he registers the rebels’ heroism and bravery, the speaker firmly
acknowledges the costs of their commitment. While becoming heroes, they may have lost
some of their humanity as well as their lives—and the speaker cannot ultimately say
whether the sacrifice was worth the cost.

The speaker contrasts the rebels’ private lives with what politics made them become,
noting that many of them gave up personal benefits for their cause. The speaker
remembers one rebel's elegant life as a young, attractive woman engaged in aristocratic
pursuits like riding "to harriers" (hunting) before she became involved in politics and
started spending her “nights in argument.” He wonders whether another man, a talented
poet with “daring

 Easter, 1916” Summary

o The speaker begins by describing how he used to encounter "them," the men and
women he will later identify as the Irish rebels who died during the Easter Rising,
at the end of the day. Their faces might reveal some internal agitation or strong
emotion, but the speaker first saw them only in the context of ordinary, everyday
life, coming home in the evenings from jobs in shops or offices, meeting the
speaker on the streets of Dublin outside the grey stone eighteenth-century
buildings. The speaker would briefly acknowledge them with a nod and
meaningless small talk just to be polite, or stop a short while and make
meaningless small talk just to be polite. Even while he was talking to them, he
would already be thinking of some way to make fun of them while talking to one
of his own friends later at their posh club. The speaker had nothing more serious
on his mind than a joke because he thought that they all were just living regular,
unimportant lives. Now, though, everything is completely, totally different. Some
event has occurred that was highly destructive but also helped bring about
profound change.

The speaker then describes individual men and women who participated in the
Rising. One woman tried earnestly but misguidedly to accomplish positive
change. Her devotion to extreme political positions was reflected in her endless,
strident arguing for her side. She used to show a more moderate, engaging
personality when she was a young, beautiful woman who spent her time in
leisurely pursuits like hunting. One man was a schoolteacher and poet,
metaphorically riding the "winged horse" (a symbol of poetic inspiration in Greek
mythology); another man was a poet and critic who was helping the first man
develop his talent and cultivating his own. This poet might have become famous
for his art, given his perceptiveness and his attractive, innovative style. There was
another man whom the speaker perceived as an arrogant, good-for-nothing
drunkard. This man was abusive towards people the speaker cared for very
deeply. But the speaker admits that he must respect and acknowledge even this
man. This man left also behind the unimportant activities of everyday life. This
man also was completely, totally transformed by his participation in the
Rising. This event was highly destructive but also helped bring about profound
change.

The speaker suggests that people who, like the rebels, dedicate all their love,
energy, and activity to one goal can sometimes start to seem inhuman in their
single-minded dedication. Like an unmoving stone in a moving stream, such
people can disrupt the flow of ordinary life around them. Almost all things in
nature, whether animals, humans, or the weather, are in a state of constant
change. Small events, like a cloud passing by above a stream or a horse's hoof
slipping into the water, can have major consequences. The natural events of life,
like wild birds mating, show that each living thing must adapt every minute for its
own survival. But stones simply exist in the same state.
The speaker suggests that people who give up too much of their lives to pursue unchanging goals
may lose their ordinary human feelings. He first wonders when all these sacrifices will be
enough to achieve the goal, but then decides that it is Heaven, or God's, job to answer that
question. The job for him and the rest of the community is simply to remember the dead with
seriousness, respect, and love, just as a mother would watch over her sleeping child with gravity
and love when the child has finally fallen asleep after running around in a frenzy. The speaker
wonders if death may be something temporary and relatively painless, like sleeping through the
night before waking up in the morning. He rejects that idea, however, to remind himself and the
reader that the rebels are truly dead and will not come back. He next wonders if their deaths may
have been unnecessary. Britain might have kept its promise to grant Ireland Home Rule, in spite
of the nationalists' mistrust of the British. But again, the speaker decides it is not his or the
public's job to answer that question. They don't need to know whether the rebels accomplished
their goal; just knowing that they died for the sake of this goal is enough to earn them honor and
respect. Still, the speaker cannot help wondering again if their extreme devotion to their goal
may have clouded their judgment. But once again, he turns away from that speculation to
remember the dead rebels. He lists by name some of the Rising's most important leaders—
MacDonagh, MacBride, Connolly, Pearse. He affirms that for the rest of Ireland's existence,
whenever the Irish gather to celebrate their country, these rebels will be honored, their identities
having been completely transformed from that of ordinary people. The event was highly

destructive but also helped bring about profound change. Analysis of Easter,
1916
Stanza One
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.
The first stanza describes Dublin, where the revolutionaries lived and worked.
Dublin is known for its “eighteenth-century houses,” rows of connected and
identical four-story brick homes, each doorway made distinctive by “fan light”
windows. Yeats himself lived in one such house, at 82 Merrion Square.

In this stanza of Easter, 1916  not much happens other than remembering how
he and the rebels exchanged pleasantries on the street or talked at the “club.”
The club was a traditional gentleman’s social meeting place open to members
only. It was part of a fashionable English upper-class tradition and the
revolutionaries were not members. Yeats admits that he belittled the earnest
rebels to his companions at the club.

One should also take note of the language Yeats chose to use in these lines.
His writing is commonly associated with flowery language, and very
traditionally poetic-sounding verses. This is not the case here. The lines are
simplified, just as his speech is to these revolutionaries. There are certain
phrases, such as ” mocking tale or a gibe” which also speak to the
poet’s tone towards the subjects. These words in particular are intentionally
strange and are meant to make a reader question why they are being used. It
is clear Yeats, or at least his speaker, has a difficult and complicated
relationship with the Rising and those who participated.

Toward the end of the stanza, Yeats introduces the subtle, but
powerful, metaphor of “motley.” To wear motley is to wear different colors
combined. The people of Dublin could be said to be a “motley” group in 1916:
they were Catholic and Protestant, Irish in spirit but English in terms of
citizenship, poor and rich. Here Yeats is making use of metonymy, or the
creation of a relationship between an object and something closely related to
it. In this case, Yeats’ beliefs about the clothes and their silly, multicolored
designs, are transferred to the lives of those wearing them.

The River Liffey divides Dublin; many of the rebels worked on the poorer north
side of the city. Court jesters also traditionally wore motley, and Yeats is likely
also referring to the tradition of the “stage Irishman,” a comic figure in English
plays, usually portrayed as being drunk. The poet thought the rebels were like
these ridiculous jesters and once mocked their dreams. This one word
encapsulates the social, political, and cultural situation of Dublin in 1916.

The stanza ends with the refrain that will mark all the stanzas of the poem,
the oxymoron: “a terrible beauty is born.” Terrible and beauty are opposite
sentiments and speak to the concept of the “sublime” in which horror and
beauty can exist simultaneously. It is usually experienced from afar. This could
be said for Yeats’ perspective on the Rising. The Easter Rising was terrible
because of its violence and loss of life, but the beauty was in the dream of
independence, a “wingèd horse” of romantic imagination.

Stanza Two
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.
In the second stanza of Easter, 1916, Yeats begins to name the rebels by their
social roles. Their names will be listed directly in the fourth and final stanza of
the poem. The people Yeats mentions in the text are actual historical figures.
He remembers that Constance Markievicz, one of the leaders of the Easter
Uprising. She is known to have designed the Citizen Army uniform. He states
that she was sweeter before arguing for Irish independence. This is seen
through the second instance of metonymy in which her “shrill” voice is
compared to her femininity. She used to ride horses and hunt rabbits, but then
she got involved via her husband, in the Rising.

Yeats also speaks on Padraic Pearse, a poet and another leader of the
Uprising. He mentions this man as riding “our winged horse.” This is a
reference to the Pegasus, which represented poets in Greek mythology.  The
“other” who Yeats mentions next is Thomas MacDonagh. He was also a poet
but was executed before he could write anything lasting. Yeats hoped this
young man would become a great name in literature.

Next Yeats moves on to John MacBride. He is described as a “drunken

vainglorious lout,” or hick. MacBride was married to Maud Gonne, a woman
Yeats was deeply in love with throughout his life. John MacBride was accused
of physically abusing her. Although Yeats clearly hates this person, he states
that he must add him into the narrative as he too died fighting.

The “causal comedy” may refer to the idea of Dublin being a stage, as in the
famous line from As You Like It  by William Shakespeare, “all the world’s a
stage; and all the men and women merely players.” In the 19 th century,
domestic comedies were plays about ordinary middle-class life and family
concerns. Yeats and MacBride had been fighting for the love of the beautiful
actress and revolutionary Maud Gonne, whom Yeats adored, but who
MacBride married.

Stanza Three
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.
The third stanza of Easter, 1916 introduces an extended pastoral metaphor.
The rebels have hardened their hearts against the English, and have focused
on “one purpose”—armed rebellion. The hearts of these rebels are compared
to a stone that “troubles” a stream of history. Not only are the hearts
representative of the entire person, but they are also referred to as stones.
They are immovable, dedicated to one purpose. It is at this point that Yeats
changes his tone towards the rebels. They are garnering respect they didn’t
have before.

In order to emphasize the unchanging nature of the rebels, Yeats goes

through a variety of images. He speaks on the rating briefs and the tumbling
clouds. These are things that do change. They contrast the rebels’ hearts.

Stanza Four
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.
In the final stanza of Easter, 1916, Yeats asks the significant question about the
Rising and the subsequent executions: “Was it needless death after all?” Was it
all worth it? Did the rebels feel so much love for their country that they were
willing to sacrifice their lives? And what good is Ireland if the dreamers are
dead? The immediate political issue that arises is that England was on the
verge of granting Ireland status as an independent—or “free”—state, which
would allow it to have its own parliament. The granting of independence had
been set aside during World War I because the English required Irish support
of the war.
In the second stanza, Yeats introduced the idea “the song.” In stanza four he
developed the idea more fully. In Irish political ballad tradition, naming the
names of martyrs was important. Yeats follows the tradition by listing Padraic
Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, and John MacBride. He also includes James
Connolly at this point, the labor leader.

Green is the traditional color associated with Ireland, the Emerald Isle. It is also
the color of the original Irish flag. At the end of Easter, 1916, Yeats reconciles
himself to the fact that “wherever green is worn,” people will remember the
sacrifices of the rebels of 1916.

  Easter 1916: Poetic Devices

Rhyme:
There are some inconsistencies but for the most part the poem has a rhyme
scheme of ABAB for successive four lines. The inconsistencies in the rhyme
scheme goes to show the attitude of the poet towards the content in those four
lines where the inconsistencies occur.
Alliteration:
There is some alliteration in the poem. ‘Casual comedy’ in paragraph 2 is an
example.
Synecdoche:
Synecdoche is using a part to refer to the whole. ‘Hearts’ in paragraph 3 and
‘limbs’ in paragraph 4 are examples of synecdoche. They both refer to the bodies
of the revolutionaries as a whole.
Imagery:
There is much imagery in the paragraph 3 of the poem. Horses, riders, clouds,
moor-hens with long legs; they are all part of the imagery used.
Symbol:
The winged horse reference to paragraph 2 is a symbol for a poet. This is
according to Greek myth.
Metaphor:
There is some metaphor when the speaker speaks of stones. The stones here may
refer to the hearts of the revolutionaries, unmoving and unchanging but at the
end of the paragraph, stones may refer to the legacies the revolutionaries leave
behind, which remain constant through the flow of time.
Foreshadowing:
There is foreshadowing towards the ending of the first paragraph. ‘All changed,
changed utterly’; this sentence speaks of the content to be expected in the
coming part of poem.