Simon Kress
Eng 342WR
28 January 2008
Memory in Yeats’s 1916 Poetry Vs History in Making Sense of the Troubles
William Butler Yeats, David McVea and David McKittrick all comment on the Easter Rising through text. However, although both Yeats’s 1916 poetry and McVea and McKittrick’s Making Sense of the Troubles recall the past, Yeats focuses on the theme of memory while McVea and McKittrick view the Rising from a historical standpoint.
Because memory is connected to he who remembers, it is more complex than history, which remains unbiased in the facts that it contains. For example, when Yeats writes “And is there logic to outweigh / MacDonagh’s bony thumb?” (lines 11-12) in his poem, “Sixteen Dead Men,” he requires the reader’s opinion, and therefore his or her memory, in order to receive a response. In this way, Yeats does not simply treat the Rising as a historical event that can be explained succinctly, but rather as one that is remembered by different people in different ways. As Edna Longley states, “Yeats’s 1916 poems… frustrate the notion that remembering the Rising will be a simple matter” (83). Indeed, Yeats’s poetry calls for his readers to remember the Rising as it affected them, not simply as it happened.
In contrast, Making Sense of the Troubles covers the history of the Easter Rising in two sentences. Although its account is brief, it is also unbiased and factual, stating that Irish “republicans stag[ed] a rebellion against British rule” (McKittrick and McVea 4). Within this account there is no room for personal opinion or memory. Therefore, McVea and McKittrick look to the past, but do so differently from Yeats by calling on statistics rather than reader participation.
William Butler Yeats, David McVea and David McKittrick all comment on the Easter Rising through text. However, although both Yeats’s 1916 poetry and McVea and McKittrick’s Making Sense of the Troubles recall the past, Yeats focuses on the theme of memory while McVea and McKittrick view the Rising from a historical standpoint.
Because memory is connected to he who remembers, it is more complex than history, which remains unbiased in the facts that it contains. For example, when Yeats writes “And is there logic to outweigh / MacDonagh’s bony thumb?” (lines 11-12) in his poem, “Sixteen Dead Men,” he requires the reader’s opinion, and therefore his or her memory, in order to receive a response. In this way, Yeats does not simply treat the Rising as a historical event that can be explained succinctly, but rather as one that is remembered by different people in different ways. As Edna Longley states, “Yeats’s 1916 poems… frustrate the notion that remembering the Rising will be a simple matter” (83). Indeed, Yeats’s poetry calls for his readers to remember the Rising as it affected them, not simply as it happened.
In contrast, Making Sense of the Troubles covers the history of the Easter Rising in two sentences. Although its account is brief, it is also unbiased and factual, stating that Irish “republicans stag[ed] a rebellion against British rule” (McKittrick and McVea 4). Within this account there is no room for personal opinion or memory. Therefore, McVea and McKittrick look to the past, but do so differently from Yeats by calling on statistics rather than reader participation.
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