A Study Guide for W.B. Yeats's "Easter 1916"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for W.B. Yeats's "Easter 1916," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Aug 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535822343

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Easter 1916

W. B. Yeats

1916

Introduction

One of the most important political poems of the twentieth century is W. B. Yeats’s Easter 1916. Inspired by events that transpired in Dublin, Ireland, the poem pays tribute to the leaders of the Irish uprising that was timed to coincide with Easter, the religious holiday commemorating Christ’s resurrection. During the rebellion, or what came to be known as the Easter Rising, Sinn Feiners—members of a political party whose name means We Ourselves in Irish Gaelic and who favored an independent Ireland—overtook key buildings in downtown Dublin on April 24, 1916. They were forced to surrender under heavy British fire six days later. Sixteen Sinn Fein men were subsequently executed and one woman was jailed. Yeats knew many of the participants, some of whom were fellow poets and writers. While Yeats was sympathetic, like many of the Irish, to the cause of an independent Ireland, he was troubled by the violence of the rebellion and its destructive aftermath. With the executions and the public’s anger at them, however, he also felt something was accomplished: the executions had inspired the Irish with the conviction that England was a ruthless power that must be forced to leave Ireland. Besides being favorably disposed, Yeats was also troubled by something else: the sensitive Sinn Feiners he had known were hardened by their participation in politics, especially violent political insurrection. While Yeats refrained from condemning the leaders for becoming involved in politics—a realm in which he thought they did not belong—he did, however, regret that they had. The terrible beauty serving as the refrain of this poem thus describes a twofold conflict: first, that passion for peace often breaks out in violence, and, two, that thoughtful and sensitive natures are often hardened by a quest for justice. Perhaps one reason this poem is still a vibrant symbol of the movement for Irish independence is that Yeats’s double conflict was, and still is, Ireland’s— particulary in Northern Ireland. In a country fractured by political and religious divisions, it would not be