#post_for_4th_yr Easter, 1916 W. B. Yeats SUMMARY Lines 1-4 • Yeats starts the poem off by talking about some people whom hes met at the close of day or the end of the business day (probably 5pm-ish). These folks are probably happy to be off work, so they come with vivid faces from wherever they work, whether its behind a desk or counter at a store among some grey old houses. • As you can imagine, Yeats the fancy-pants poet sort of thinks hes above these common people who work regular jobs. If Yeats is ever going to sit behind a desk, its going to be on his own terms as a poet. • At this point, were still not totally sure what Yeats title means for this poem. All we know is that he tends to run into people he knows (or more likely, people who know him) at the end of the business day in Dublin. Not much to go on so far. Lines 5-8 • Here, Yeats takes his snobbery up a notch and mentions how hes passed these people with a mere nod of the head or maybe some polite meaningless words. You know, like when someone asks you how youre doing, but you know they dont really care about the answer. • Just to make sure were on the same page as him, Yeats repeats the phrase polite meaningless words in line 8 to show that he doesnt care about the majority of his run-ins with these people. • The repetition of the phrase polite meaningless words also helps us realize just how much Yeats finds his interactions with people repetitive (and probably boring). But hey, at least the guy has the good will to linger awhile with some of these people. • You know, because hes such a nice dude. • At this point, its also worthwhile to note that Yeats diction isnt all that fancy compared to some of the stuff he usually writes. • Theres nothing really all that poetic about what hes saying in these opening lines, just like theres nothing poetic about the boring conversations hes talking about. Lines 9-12 • While hes talking to these people, Yeats will sometimes think of a funny story or mocking tale that he can tell that will make people happy around the fireplace at a nearby club or bar. You know, if hes feeling really generous, hell tell people a funny story. But his communication with these people stays totally superficial. • You can kind of tell how superficial his conversations are by how little poetry there really is in these lines. Sure, the guy is still writing things in a nice, flowy way. But if you were looking for themes to analyze in this first stanza, Yeats isnt giving you all that much. All you can really say so far is, Yup, he finds most of his social interactions pretty meaningless. • One thing that does happen in these lines, though, is that Yeats diction starts to get even folksier than it is in the beginning lines. Were thinking this might be ironic on Yeats part, as he is starting to use silly sounding words to help show how unimportant these interactions are to him. Who in the world calls a funny story a mocking tale or gibe? This isnt just language from Yeats time. Its intentionally silly. Lines 13-16 • Yeats was always certain that the social world where he talked to these people is a world where motley is worn (14). Motley refers to the patchwork of colors that would traditionally be worn by a jester or old-timey comedian. By associating a silly life with the kind of motley clothes people wear, Yeats is also using a little device called metonymy. Basically, hes playing on our usual associations with clown clothing to make us think of his entire social life as silly and pointless. • This is another image Yeats uses to say that he always assumed these people lived in a world where you went to work, joked around at the bar, and called it a day. • But now, something that has happened that has made All changed, changed utterly (15). Readers of Yeats back in the day would have known at this point that Yeats is now referring back to this poems title, Easter, 1916, which refers to a bloody uprising in Irelands history. This uprising still would have been fresh in peoples minds when Yeats published this poem in 1921. So readers here would definitely be waiting for Yeats to get to the part about people dying. • Yeah, now were getting somewhere as far as poetry goes. Now Yeats isnt all like, I dont really care about talking to people on the street. Instead, he talks about a terrible beauty. • Apart from the fact that both of these words are very different in tone from the rest of the first stanza, they also create a lot of conflict right off the bat by being an oxymoron. By definition, beauty is supposed to be a good thing. So what are we to make of a guy who refers to a certain type of beauty as terrible? Thats a question that only reading the rest of the poem can answer. Its also a little technique called foreshadowing. Stay tuned. Lines 17-20 • Its not totally clear which woman Yeats is talking about here. But some quick research tells us that its probably the Countess Constance Markievicz, who was one of the main people behind the Easter Uprising. She was sentenced to death, but got the sentence reduced to life in prison. • Here, Yeats isnt exactly showering praise on the woman who gave her life to the Irish cause. In fact, he says that much of the goodwill this woman showed was ignorant and uninformed. He also says that this woman liked to argue so much that her voice grew shrill (20). These arent exactly kind remarks for someone who wouldve been a national hero in Ireland when Yeats was writing this. • By using the phrase, her voice grew shrill, Yeats is also bringing us back to one of his favorite poetic techniques—metonymy. • When he says that the womans voice grew shrill in these lines, thats not all he actually means. What hes saying is that this womans involvement in politics has taken away her feminine beauty, which Yeats symbolizes here through the idea of a once-beautiful voice getting shrill over time because its owner wont stop arguing about politics. Lines 21-23 • In these lines, though, Yeats sounds like hes changed his tune. Suddenly, his tone seems nice when he asks what voice was sweeter than the Countesss when she was young and beautiful and rode to harriers. This last phrase is a British phrase meaning that the woman rode on a horse during a hunt for rabbits. But when you think about it, its kind of a nice symbol of rich beauty. Cant you just see the Countess riding on her horse through a beautiful green forest, birds chirping on every side of her? • But by using the metonymy of a shrill voice to show an ugly change, Yeats seems to be saying that the Countess was once a young and beautiful woman who did beautiful rich-people activities like rabbit hunting. But as she got older, she got involved in the dirty world of politics and her voice got shrill. Yeats here isnt exactly advocating for women to enter politics. It seems that he prefers them young, rich, beautiful, and away from the public sphere. Not the most forward-thinking message, but there you have it. Lines 24-30 • Now Yeats is talking about some guy who kept a school and rode our winged horse. Yeats is kind of relying on his Irish audience to know his references. But for those of us who were born more than 80 years later, we need to look this dude up to find out that his name was Padraic Pearse. • Like the Countess, this guy was one of the leaders of the Easter Uprising in Ireland. And yes, the dude was the founder of a boys school in Dublin and he was also a poet. Yeats throws in the mention of the winged horse because this mythical beast (or Pegasus) was the official animal of the poet in Greek myth. Now thats some solid symbolism going on there. • Next, Yeats mentions this other dude, who was a helped and friend to Pearse. The guy Yeats is referring to is probably Thomas MacDonagh, who was a poet and dramatist who also helped with the Uprising. Yeats seems to feel a special pique of regret for this guy, since he was coming into his force or just starting to get good as a writer when he was executed for fighting in the Uprising. • In this section, you can also see Yeats starting to get a little more obvious with some of the rhymes hes been throwing down in this poem. Earlier, the rhyme might have been hard to detect. But here, hes kind of spelling it out for us with pairs like horse and force or friend and end. Now this might be because Yeats is actually starting to talk about another poet, or maybe hes starting to feel some emotion in what hes talking about. Its kind of hard to tell—both for us and for Yeats himself, it seems. • According to Yeats, MacDonagh might have even gotten famous if hed kept his nose out of the fighting, because the guy had a sensitive nature and his thought was daring and sweet. Remember here that Yeats was already a famous poet by this time, and he had no interest sticking his neck out just so Ireland could be independent from England. He had his career to think about. • Throughout these lines, Yeats keeps saying things like That woman of this man. It sounds like hes actually holding out an old photograph and pointing at each of these people as he describes them. This has the effect of showing us that these people lived only as memories because theyre now dead or in prison for life. Lines 31-35 • Whoever this next guy is, Yeats really doesnt sound like a big fan. Theres really nowhere else in this poem where he uses a phrase thats as harsh as drunken vainglorious lout. He says that hed always thought of this guy as a drunken oaf or hick. • Yeats says he especially didnt like this guy because the dude had done bitter harm to people Yeats cared deeply about. • Okay, well tell you—the guy Yeats is talking about here is Major John MacBride, a man who was once married to Maud Gonne, who just so happens to be the woman Yeats spent most of his life obsessing over. Yeats clearly resented this guy for being married and unmarried to Maud. But still Yeats overcomes his sour grapes and says Yet I number him in this song, meaning that hes willing to give MacBride his due for fighting for the Irish cause. Line 36-40 • As Yeats winds down his second stanza, he says that Major MacBride has resigned his part and died like many of the other revolutionary leaders. But the fact that Yeats calls the Uprising a casual comedy suggests that he still isnt sold on whether or not the whole thing was worth the trouble. The phrase casual comedy also involves some alliteration that makes it sound even more, well, casual. Its almost verging on some of the silliness that Yeats puts in the first stanza of this poem. • Nonetheless, Yeats says that MacBride has been changed through his sacrifice. Hes no longer just a living jerk. Now hes a dead hero. Yeats closes the stanza with everyones favorite oxymoron by writing, A terrible beauty is born, which hell repeat a couple more times in the poem. In fact, you could just go ahead and call this phrase a refrain, meaning that it works in this poem kind of like the way a chorus works in a pop song. • The fact that Yeats keeps returning to this phrase suggests that it holds some power to unlock the meaning of this whole poem. • And in this context, he seems to be suggesting that even though the bloodshed of the Uprising was terrible, theres something beautiful about the sacrifice that people were willing to make for something they believed in. Lines 41-44 • Now Yeats is starting to put on his serious hat. In these lines, he compares hearts that have only one purpose only to a stone that splashes into or troubles the living stream of history. • Oh yeah, and we should mention here that Yeats isnt talking about hearts that have decided to rebel against their owners and jump out of peoples chests. Hes using a device called synecdoche to use peoples hearts as symbols for the entire person. • So what he really means here is, People who are devoted to a single purpose, kind of like the Irish fighters. • And on top of that, Yeats is comparing these peoples hearts to a stone, which might sound kind of harsh at first. But he doesnt mean cold and uncaring when he talks about a stone here. He means that these peoples sense of purpose is unmoveable and unchanging. Even though the seasons change like summer and winter, and the stream of life keeps moving and changing, these peoples passion wont change even after theyre dead. • Yeats language is different here than earlier in the poem. By comparing the fighters to a rock, hes giving them a sort of respect that he hasnt earlier in the poem. Maybe hes finally starting to throw down some mad props for the dead. Lines 45-48 • In order to show us just how unchanging the fighters passion was, Yeats decides to throw down a bunch of nature imagery to give us an example of things that actually do change over time. • For example, someone riding along the road on a horse changes; the birds that fly above him change and the clouds keep floating along. Minute by minute, all of these things change. • But not the passion of the fighters who have died. They cant change anymore because theyre dead, and they died with thoughts of a free Ireland in their hearts, which makes these passions stay the same forever. • Pretty intense, eh? Yeats is getting farther and farther away from the snobby tone he started this poem off with. Lines 49-52 • Hooray. More nature imagery. Nice clouds that get reflected in the moving river. Nice horsey sliding into the water and splashing around. • But this is all going on in a world where the people Yeats is remembering are dead and gone. The world continues on without them, it seems. But we should never forget here that these people and their political cause still exists like an unchanging stone at the bottom of the stream. • Its a metaphor for how theres something permanent left behind by these peoples sacrifice, even though the world might go on changing with the seasons. You might not be able to see their lingering presence; but its still totally there. Lines 53-56 • Okay, Yeats. We get the point that nature is nice and youre very good at describing it. Its great that the moor-hens love to dive into the water and call out to their boyfriends, the moor-cocks. Yes, they live minute-by-minute. They dont really think about the past and the future because theyre animals. They live totally in the here and now and they just take change as it comes. • But not the people who died in the Easter Uprising. No, these folks are like a stone that continues to exist in the midst of all the change thats going on. • Here, Yeats almost sounds as if he feels some sort of survivor guilt over what has happened to his friends. Its like hes questioning his own bravery because he totally backed away from all the fighting and wanted no part in it. • He probably wonders here whether theres anything inside of him thats as constant and pure as the devotion that his friends had to their political cause. Maybe Yeats is starting to wonder what his life is for if theres nothing hes willing to die for. Lines 57-64 • Now Yeats is talking about how too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. But what exactly does he mean by that? • So far, hes been talking about the unchanging, stone-like quality of the people who fought in the Easter Uprising. But now he seems to be wondering when all of this sacrifice will be enough. How many people have to die before things can get back to normal? In other words, when may it suffice? • Well according to Yeats, That is Heavens part, which probably means that its not up to us to know when therell be enough bloodshed to stop the fighting and killing. Instead, our role is to murmur name upon name, which are probably the names of the dead. In other words, we might not be able to put an end to the bloody cycle of history. All we really have the power to do is mourn the people whove died. • Yeats uses simile to compare our mourning to mothers who have to mourn for children who sleep at last (i.e. die) after a life of running wild. It can be easy to get lost in some of these lines, because here more than anywhere else in the poem, Yeats is actually starting to layer his images, symbols, and similes one on top of another. So lets just recap here. • Yeats has been talking about peoples hearts (i.e. people themselves) being like unchanging stones because they have a goal (Irish freedom) that is unchanging. But now, Yeats is changing the meaning of stone and saying that peoples hearts (i.e. people themselves) can become stone-like—as in cold and unemotional—if they have to live through too much tragedy or sacrifice. • On top of that, Yeats says that the rest of us (i.e. people who live on) have to spend our lives mourning the people who have died before their time, just like mothers who have to mourn their children. • Phew. Did everyone get all of that? Lines 65-69 • So now Yeats wants to talk about nightfall. But wait a second; no he doesnt. He doesnt want to talk about night, but death. It was a metaphor, you see. Sneaky, that Yeats. • At this point, it honestly sounds like Yeats is getting sick of all the imagery and metaphors hes been layering over the past stanza. So here, he just takes the literal route and says, Okay, Im not actually talking about night here. Its a metaphor for death. Im talking about death. Got it? • Next, he goes back to wondering whether the death that happened in the Easter Uprising as needless death after all. • Remember that England was still promising to give Ireland its independence once World War I was over. All the Irish had to do was wait another two years and they might have gotten their independence either way—at least, thats how Yeats sees it. • Yeats backs this up by saying that England may keep faith / For all that is done and said. In other words, hes saying that even though all this violent stuff has gone down, England might still keep its promise and give Ireland its freedom. In this case, the Uprising doesnt look all that glorious. Lines 70-73 • Despite everything thats happened, one things for sure for Yeats: We know their dream. In other words, we know what these people were willing to die for. • But on the other hand, we also know that they dreamed and are dead (71). So thats kind of harsh. Its like Yeats is saying, Yeah, you guys dreamed of a free Ireland; and now youre all dead. Thats all we really know for sure. In these lines, the brute fact of death is threatening to totally take away the value of what the people fought for. • But Yeats doesnt end with this pessimistic, cynical comment. He follows it up by asking whether the people did what they did because they felt too much love. Maybe all of their love for Ireland confused or Bewildered them until they died. • Now this may sound a bit nicer, but still not all that complimentary. Its like Yeats is saying these people did what they did out of love. But hes also saying that their love confused them and made them do foolish things that they wouldnt have done if theyd been thinking clearly. • On the other hand, Yeats phrases this bit about the fighters being bewildered by love as a question. Its up to us to decide whether its a rhetorical question. • Or in other words, is Yeats genuinely curious about whether these people were confused by love, or does he assume that they were? Lines 74-80 • After all his confusion about how he should feel about the Easter Uprising, it looks like the only thing Yeats can say for sure is that he write[s] it out in verse. But what is it in this line? Well it seems to refer to Yeats thought process as he thinks about the Uprising and the people who participated in it. • Now he just writes out the names of people who fought in the struggle (lots of Irish names in there). But he concludes by saying that these people are changed, changed utterly both in the present and in the future, especially whenever green is worn. Yeats is using a metonymy here, as green is the official color of Ireland (go figure). • So Yeats seems to be saying here that these people have been changed by their sacrifice, because now theyll be remembered whenever people wear green and think about Irelands freedom and its history. This is something Yeats knows he isnt a part of, and he doesnt totally know how to feel about that. • This bit about wearing green is also significant if you remember way back to line 14, where Yeats uses the metonymy of motley clothing to symbolize the silliness of his daily life. • Well now we can contrast that metonymy with the one about wearing green, which Yeats finds much more serious and worthy of poetry. In other words, this contrast between motley and green clothing might actually reveal Yeats secret belief that these fighters have lived a more meaningful life than he ever will. • The only thing he can really finish by saying is to repeat his favorite refrain, A terrible beauty is born. The paradox of calling beauty terrible does a good job of bringing together the feelings of admiration and detachment that Yeats feels for the people who fought in the Easter Uprising. • Hes not prepared to come out and say that it was a glorious event; but at the same time, hes not willing to say that the people died for nothing, either. Hes caught between the worlds of total snobbish removal and a desire to celebrate people who gave their lives for what they believed in. • But yeah, he never really gets any further than uncertainty. Thats 20th-century poetry for you. POWER BY SAD BOY
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 15:39:51 +0000
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