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Famous william butler yeats quotes11/10/2023 ![]() ∜hrist was still the half-brother of Dionysius. ( Essays and Introductions, p.514 Albright, ed., Poems, 1992, p.758.)Īrtist as priest (I): In the first day it is the art of the people, and in the second day, like the drama acted of old times in the hidden places of temples, it is the preparation of a priesthood. Whatever the great poets had affirmed in their finest moments was the nearest we could come to an authoritative religion, and that their mythology, their spirits of water and wind, were but literal truth. (Quoted in Richard Ellmann, Yeats: The Man and the Masks, OUP 1979 edn., p.43 cited in Brendan Mitchell, MA Dip., UUC 2009.) in Richard Ellmann, Yeats: The Man and the Masks, 1948, p.287.) That is true of life & death themselves. (Letter to Ethel Mannin, 20 Oct. To me all things are made of the conflict of two states of consciousness, beings or persons which die each others life live each others death. very emotion is, in its hidden essence, an unfallen angel of God, a being of uncorruptible flame. (That Subtle Shade, in Uncollected Prose, ed. GradeSaver, 26 June 2021 Web.William Butler Yeats - Quotations (4): Poetic Theories Next Section Easter 1916 Summary and Analysis Previous Section Themes Buy Study Guide How To Cite in MLA Format Sharpe, K. He then says that now and in the future, whenever Irish people gather together (Ireland is symbolized by the color green) people will remember how these four revolutionaries were transformed through the events of the Easter Rising. In the climax of the poem, the speaker finally names the Irish revolutionaries that he had only alluded to previously. He says that the role of moral people, “out part,” is to repeat the names of the dead the same way a mother would “murmur” the name of her child falling asleep after a long day of “run wild.” Then the poet draws on the old motif of death as a form of sleep: “What is it but nightfall?” However, his indecisiveness is again clear in the next line when he rejects this kind of poetic idealization: “No, no, not night but death.” The events are too gruesome to be smoothed away by pleasant metaphors. Then he says that this is not up to humans but will be decided by “Heaven,” or God. First he asks when all the violence and self-sacrifice will finally add up to create a real change. ![]() ![]() The frequent questions and repetitions show that his mind is not made up. These lines show the speaker’s ambivalent relationship to the Easter Rising. This makes it unnaturally consistent in a way that seems to go against nature: it “trouble the living stream.” It is committed to “one purpose” or cause. The stone is a symbol of the heart of the revolutionary. The third stanza compares the stone, which remains still and seeming unchanging, to the cyclical and constantly moving natural world. The result is that he was “transformed utterly.” It may also mean that history itself is like a “casual comedy.” He took his place in the events of the Easter Rising the way an actor would play a role. That he “has resigned his part/In the casual comedy” can mean that he has given up the court jester-like ridiculousness of his earlier life. He was also the drunk and abusive ex-husband of Maud Gonne, Yeats’s friend and the love of his life. He was a major in the Irish Republican Army. The person referred to here is John MacBridge. These lines show how the Easter Rising transformed its participants beyond whatever individual faults they had. He had great potential and could have gone on to do influential things once he came “into his force.” However, this potential was cut off after he was executed by the British army. Thomas MacDonagh was also a participant in the Easter Rising. They are like court jesters dressed in multi-colored “motley.” However, with their transformation into martyrs, something beautiful and frightening comes into the world.ĭescribing Constance Gore-Booth Markievicz (a countess, suffragette, and Irish nationalist) the speaker says that she had a sweet voice before revolutionary politics made her harsh and “shrill.” When she was young, she used to engage in elite pursuits like horse-riding and hunting. Before, it is as if everyone is laughable. Just as Dublin is transformed by the Easter Rising, so too are its participants. The end of the first stanza foreshadows that the speaker’s relationship with the Irish Republicans he passes in the street will change. He might exchange polite words with them in the street, but makes fun of them behind their backs. ![]() The description here shows that he does not take them seriously at first. The speaker is casually acquainted with some of the people who will go on to be involved in it. The poem begins with life in “grey” Dublin before the Easter Rising.
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