Yet I number him in the song; A
He, too, has resigned his part B
In the casual comedy; C
He, too, has been changed in his turn, D
Transformed utterly: C
A terrible beauty is born. D
Hearts with one purpose alone A
Through summer and winter seem B
Enchanted to a stone A
To trouble the living stream. B
The horse that comes from the road. C
The rider, the birds that range D
From cloud to tumbling cloud, C
Minute by minute they change; D
A shadow of cloud on the stream A
Changes minute by minute; B
A horse-hoof slides on the brim, A
And a horse plashes within it; B
The long-legged moor-hens dive, C
And hens to moor-cocks call; D
Minute by minute they live: C
The stone's in the midst of all. D
Too long a sacrifice A
Can make a stone of the heart. B
O when may it suffice? A
That is Heaven's part, our part B
To murmur name upon name, C
As a mother names her child D
When sleep at last has come C
On limbs that had run wild. D
What is it but nightfall? A
No, no, not night but death; B
Was it needless death after all? A
For England may keep faith B
For all that is done and said. C
We know their dream; enough D
To know they dreamed and are dead; C
And what if excess of love D
Bewildered them till they died? A
I write it out in a verse - B
MacDonagh and MacBride A
And Connolly and Pearse B
Now and in time to be, C
Wherever green is worn, D
Are changed, changed utterly: C
A terrible beauty is born. D
WHAT IS THE OCCASION?
The speaker describes his ambivalent emotions regarding the events of the staged in against British rule on Monday, , .
WHO IS THE SPEAKER?
An Irishman acquainted with revolutionaries of the Easter Rebellion of 1916 in Ireland.
HOW DO THE PATTERNS WORK TOGETHER?
The purpose of the poem is a memorial for the people who gave their lives on Easter Monday. Yeats begins in the first stanza by describing how he interacted with Dubliners prior to the rising. He engages in meaningless polite small talk with them as they pass on the street, and later may even joke about them at his club. He did not identify with these people and certainly did not respect them. At the end of the stanza Yeats is saying that the rising changed all that, and now he identifies with them. He can see their commonality and their shared destiny. In the second stanza he begins to talk about specific people who took part in the rebellion. The four are not mentioned by name, but their identity is obvious and would have been obvious to the reader at the time. They are, in order, Constance Markievicz, Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, and John MacBride. He describes the first three as good people, but not as doing anything especially wonderful or productive. He identifies Pearse as a talented writer and the founder of the St. Edna School. MacDonagh is a sweet and sensitive man. MacBride is not thought highly of by Yeats, who describes him as "A drunken, vainglorious lout." MacBride was married to Yeats's lifetime love interest, Maud Gonne, and treated her poorly. Yet, Yeats still honors MacBride because he sacrificed himself for Ireland. He asserts even MacBride can be "transformed utterly" by this event. The third stanza shifts into nature-oriented language to explore the concept of change in Ireland. He compares the hearts of the fallen Irish to a stone, unable to change. The Irish have "one purpose alone", to free Ireland, and this purpose has so enveloped them that their hearts have become stone. The stone is within the stream of the living, however, and the stone impedes the flowing changes. Yeats mentions how everything changes; the horse, the rider, the birds, the clouds, the shadows all change minute to minute, but the stone remains fixed and stationary through the change. This first line of the fourth stanza builds off of the third stanza's stone metaphor. The long struggle of the Irish has made them weary and their hearts turn to stone. He goes on to say only God knows when their sacrificing will suffice to accomplish their goals. Yeats believes all humans can do is memorialize the dead by saying their names, as a mother would a fallen child. The final stanza affirms that the rebels did not die in vain; that the dream they died for is stronger than it ever was when they were living. Yeats writes out "in a verse" four names of persons who were executed to honor and remember them, and to make sure their deaths surely were not in vain. They had born the terrible beauty of Irish patriotism and the Irish revolutionary spirit. They had changed their country, and themselves, forever.
