William Butler Yeats, who is accepted both in English and Irish Canons, is one of the outstanding figures of the twentieth century literature. His differing ideas on various subjects have always attracted the attention of the readers of his time and today. One of the themes that have great influence on his poetry is Irish nationalism. Some people regard him as the greatest poet of his country; he is labeled as a British supporter by the others. Yeats describes his nationalism as an intellectual act rather than political. Yeats’ reflected ambivalence towards Irish nationalism in “Easter 1916”.
In “Easter 1916”, which was written after the Easter
Rising in Dublin, a more consentient tone
is used. It can be said that Yeats used a softer language to criticize Irish
nationalism in “Easter 1916”. The poem
was written to praise the Irish nationalists that were executed after the
Easter Rising, a bloodshed memory in
history. In fact, while glorifying these people, Yeats is critical about
nationalism and the use of violence for independence,
so the poem portrays Yeats’ “sincerity and complexity” about the rising.
Moreover, Yeats’s “strong opposition to the violent political struggle as a means for Irish independence made him uncertain about the justice and success
of the rebels’ cause”. Therefore, the whole poem reflects Yeats’ ambiguous feelings towards this rebellion.
Seamus Deane claims that “Yeats began his career by
inventing an Ireland amenable to his
imagination. He ended by finding an Ireland recalcitrant to it”. As things did
not go in accordance with his expectations, Yeats had conflicting thoughts
about Irish nationalism.
Like the previous one, Yeats starts the
poem by mentioning the so-called Paudeens, the middle-class people whom he regarded as “unredeemable from the
things of earth because of their fear of death” before the rising. He says:
“Coming with vivid faces /From counter
or desk among grey / Eighteenth-century houses” (lines 2-4).
It is understood from the very
beginning that though Yeats does not have a close friendship with these nationalistic people as he greets them
with “polite meaningless words”, he knows them personally. In “Easter 1916”
Yeats talks about them in a more favourable
way by using “vivid faces” at the opening. The ending of the first stanza
summarizes the bitter truth both for these
people and for Ireland.
Yeats concludes as
Being certain that they and I But lived where motley
is worn:
All changed,
changed utterly
A terrible
beauty is born” (Lines 13-6).
Upon the executions of these
nationalists, Ireland has changed that it has a glorious but a bloody history. Though Yeats
has always ignored these middle-class patriots before the rebellion, the present situation makes him change his idea about them. Yeats
finishes the stanza with an oxymoron to reflect his opposing ideas, and describes the aftermath of the rising as a
“terrible beauty”.
Unlike
the first stanza,
in which Yeats talks about
middle-class nationalists in general, in the second
one Yeats mentions four
specific Irish revolutionists. The first one is Countess Markiewicz, a member
of aristocracy. Yeats describes
her voice as “shrill” (line 20) while she talks about political
issues to emphasize
his disapproval of her ultra-nationalism. Yeats believes
that women should not take part in political
issues at that extreme.
In the following stanza, Yeats contrasts
the unchanging determinism of nationalists with the changing life. He says,
“Enchanted to a stone / To trouble the living stream”
(lines 43-4).
Yeats
creates an ambivalent
atmosphere in this stanza
because after glorifying the union of the rebels under a common goal, he
compares their extreme idealism to stone for criticism. According
to Khan the stone “symbolizes not only the single-minded dedication
of the rebels and the seriousness of their purpose but also the rigidity
and inflexibility of their political intent”. For Yeats, these people are so
enraptured with the idea of nationalism that, they do not question anything while acting.
The stone imagery continues in the last
stanza with a striking criticism about the nationalists that too much of a dedication to patriotism makes people
senseless. Its consequences are so severe that he asks
“O when may it suffice?” (line 59).
Yeats uses a metaphor for the rebels,
resembling them to children who “had run wild” to defend their country. In this part, Yeats also contributes a maternal feature to Ireland and Irish people as he tries to assert that their motherland and their people
will always remember
them by commemorating them like a mother who “names her child” (line 62).
In the following part of the fourth stanza,
after praising these nationalists, Yeats is doubtful
about the necessity of this rising, and he starts
with a shocking questions,
“Was it needless death after all?” (line
67).
It is clear that Yeats is in a conflict
as he is not one-sided about the event. He is curious about whether
or not British Government would
grant their independence without this uprising. In fact, he cannot decide where to stand; on the side of
Irish nationalists or being against them.
Yeats ends his poem in commemoration of
the nationalists by naming them one by one. He does not mention Constance as she was not executed and was
released after a year. He states that Irish people will remember these martyrs “Wherever green is worn” (line 78) because
they sacrificed themselves for their country, their people and their flag.
William Butler Yeats, who is accepted both in English and Irish canons, is one of the outstanding figures of twentieth century literature. One of his popular themes is Irish nationalism, which causes opposing ideas among critics and reading population because while expressing his ideas on this subject, he has always been dubious about the acts. Therefore, his ideas on Irish nationalism have been reflected in an ambivalent manner.
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