An extremely moving commentary—I really hadn’t intended to get so thoroughly caught up in such deep reflections at the start of my day—but the experience is profoundly welcome. The pithy idea of the tribal epic and its concerns now worked into individual’s lyric is one that will stay with me.
Yeats was right not to merely bang the drum for Irish nationalism. Lots of other, forgotten people did that. He made it into a poem at once specific and universal. It is about Ireland, and every other great, bloody cause that consumes lives and may not have been worth those lives.
Fabulous. It's one of my favorite poems—I have the whole thing memorized—yet I learned an enormous amount from this about Yeats's biography and the immediate history. Thank you.
Very well-done piece. The image of the stone in this poem is so striking. It draws out the challenge of judging the rebels -- they are strong like stones, but they exist in a stream. The story might be different if they existed in a pile of stones, but in fact, the world is a stream and so, being a rock becomes all the more painful.
I never found "Easter, 1916" that moving because I lacked the context and this essay recharged it for me, thank you! Tangentially, it also illuminated that Cranberries lyric "it's the same old theme since 1916".
When I was in college I took a class on the history of English poetry, and we covered a bit of Yeats and how he would not want to be included in the syllabus as an English writer but as an Irish one. But in covering such a wide range of poets, we didn’t dive too deeply into any one of them. I really loved the extended commentary you’ve provided here. Thanks for this deep dive into “Easter, 1916.”
good line from the Ellmann bio I didn’t use: “A revolutionary who puts spiritual ennoblement above political and economic gains is apt to find himself, like Carlyle in later life, on the side of the Tories.”
Every time I reread this poem there's some new line or stanza that pops out at me. This time it was "Hearts with one purpose alone / Through summer and winter seem / Enchanted to a stone / To trouble the living stream." Thank you for sharing your illuminating research & analysis of a wonderful poem!
Thanks! I agree, I gained a new appreciation for that whole third stanza by writing this— just very beautiful and evocative pastoral verse that does so much with very simple language. (I love "plashes" instead of "splashes")
This is a beauty and a fitting tribute and exegesis of the poem and its time. As an Irish person and a long-time student of Yeats, I am moved and inspired by your careful and lyrical piece...
An extremely moving commentary—I really hadn’t intended to get so thoroughly caught up in such deep reflections at the start of my day—but the experience is profoundly welcome. The pithy idea of the tribal epic and its concerns now worked into individual’s lyric is one that will stay with me.
Thank you for this elaboration on the poem.
Yeats was right not to merely bang the drum for Irish nationalism. Lots of other, forgotten people did that. He made it into a poem at once specific and universal. It is about Ireland, and every other great, bloody cause that consumes lives and may not have been worth those lives.
This is so good. Your specificity. Your narrative verve. Genuine illumination of a great poem.
Fabulous. It's one of my favorite poems—I have the whole thing memorized—yet I learned an enormous amount from this about Yeats's biography and the immediate history. Thank you.
I have it memorized now too-- a nice side effect of writing this.
Very well-done piece. The image of the stone in this poem is so striking. It draws out the challenge of judging the rebels -- they are strong like stones, but they exist in a stream. The story might be different if they existed in a pile of stones, but in fact, the world is a stream and so, being a rock becomes all the more painful.
🙏 well said.
yes, this vies with akhmatova's "requiem" as the greatest political poem (though the contenders, alas, are not many).
I never found "Easter, 1916" that moving because I lacked the context and this essay recharged it for me, thank you! Tangentially, it also illuminated that Cranberries lyric "it's the same old theme since 1916".
When I was in college I took a class on the history of English poetry, and we covered a bit of Yeats and how he would not want to be included in the syllabus as an English writer but as an Irish one. But in covering such a wide range of poets, we didn’t dive too deeply into any one of them. I really loved the extended commentary you’ve provided here. Thanks for this deep dive into “Easter, 1916.”
Loved this. Very educational. I'll admit most of my knowledge of these events was from songs written by those who supported the rioters.
I so hate that Yeats went fash like his former secretary and poem-fixer, but I also love his work so much.
good line from the Ellmann bio I didn’t use: “A revolutionary who puts spiritual ennoblement above political and economic gains is apt to find himself, like Carlyle in later life, on the side of the Tories.”
Very strong essay. Exemplary. Bravo.
Every time I reread this poem there's some new line or stanza that pops out at me. This time it was "Hearts with one purpose alone / Through summer and winter seem / Enchanted to a stone / To trouble the living stream." Thank you for sharing your illuminating research & analysis of a wonderful poem!
Thanks! I agree, I gained a new appreciation for that whole third stanza by writing this— just very beautiful and evocative pastoral verse that does so much with very simple language. (I love "plashes" instead of "splashes")
This is a beauty and a fitting tribute and exegesis of the poem and its time. As an Irish person and a long-time student of Yeats, I am moved and inspired by your careful and lyrical piece...
Thank you for this wonderful essay.