“Easter, 1916” Summary

“Easter, 1916” Themes

• 

  Heroism and Bravery

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• 

  Personal Fulfillment vs. Public Sacrifice

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• 

  Death and Mourning

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Easter, 1916”

• Lines 1-6

  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,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-12

  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,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  Being certain that they and I
  But lived where motley is worn:
  All changed, changed utterly:
  A terrible beauty is born.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-23

  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?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 24-30

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 31-35

  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;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 36-40

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 41-44

  Hearts with one purpose alone
  Through summer and winter seem
  Enchanted to a stone
  To trouble the living stream.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 45-50

  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;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 51-56

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 57-62

  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

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 63-69

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 70-74

  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—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 75-80

  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.

  

  

  

  

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“Easter, 1916” Symbols

• 

  Stone

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• 

  Sleeping child

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“Easter, 1916” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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• Oxymoron

  

  

  

  

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• Refrain

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Climax (Figure of Speech)

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Extended Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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“Easter, 1916” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Gibe
• Motley
• That woman
• Rode to harriers
• This man
• Wingèd horse
• This other
• This other man
• Vainglorious
• Lout
• Some who are near my heart
• Resigned
• Plashes
• Moor-hens
• Suffice
• England may keep faith
• MacDonagh
• MacBride
• Connolly
• Pearse
• Green

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Easter, 1916”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Easter, 1916” Speaker

“Easter, 1916” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Easter, 1916”

More “Easter, 1916” Resources

• External Resources

  • Other Poems on the Easter Rising — A collection of 10 poems written on the occasion of the Easter Rising, all with commentary by Dr. Lucy Collins of University College Dublin.

  • The Easter Rising — Resources on the Easter Rising from the BBC.

  • Reading of "Easter, 1916" —  A moving reading of "Easter, 1916" by Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson.

  • Dublin Rising 1916-2016 — A virtual tour of Dublin, narrated by Irish actor Colin Farrell, that overlays the contemporary city with the city as it was in 1916, and provides historical background on the Rising.

  • W.B. Yeats Biography — An account of W.B. Yeats's life, with a focus on his development as a poet.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by William Butler Yeats

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  • An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

  • A Prayer for my Daughter

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  • Lapis Lazuli

  • Leda and the Swan

  • Sailing to Byzantium

  • September 1913

  • The Lake Isle of Innisfree

  • The Second Coming

  • The Song of Wandering Aengus

  • The Wild Swans at Coole

  • To a Shade

  • When You Are Old