Revising Memory in "Easter, 1916"

In the poem "Easter, 1916" W.B. Yeats engages in a critical relationship with Irish memory. His poem enters the glorified memory of the Easter Rising and imbues it with the severities of its tragic consequences. In her essay "The Rising, the Somme and Irish Memory" Edna Longley considers this poem to be "the first work of revisionist poetry (Longley 84)." The poem questions the rebellion of one thousand men who fought in vain under leaders subsequently executed; it evaluates the damage of this violence. However, Yeats significantly keeps the memory of the dead alive "I have met them at close of day /coming with vivid faced (lines 1-2)." The selection of "vivid" highlights the individual identity, which is a part of the collective Irish memory of a group who died for the convictions that held them together.

The second stanza actively enters the Irish memory of the heroes of the Easter Rising, establishing their inspirational martyrdom, but more importantly the way in which everyone around them were inherently "changed, changed utterly/ A terrible beauty is born (lines 15-16)." Repetition of this line at the end of the second and last stanzas enforces this critique. The essence and memory of the Nationalist leader Constance Markievicz is referenced as sweet, young, and beautiful. Patrick Pearse is described as gallantly riding Pegasus, a symbol of classical and poetic inspiration. Even Yeats' enemy, John Macbride, is numbered in song for he too was a part of this revolt and the terrible beauty it entailed. Yeats reflects on the Irish memory of these heroes and asks a vital question of revision: "Was it needless death after all (line 67)?"

Yeats transcends into the beautiful memory of a valiant attempt to free Ireland from British rule and critiques it with the idea that all the hearts of the Nationalists were turned to enchanted stones. In the third stanza there is a wake-up call: the stone-hearted might be fooled to think that the darkness merely implies an ephemeral night, when in actuality "no, no, not night but death (line 66)." Yeats employs this warning that memory should be viewed from the outside in, rather than painted over with a glaze of Nationalist enchantment. Instead of passively allowing the memory to survive, Yeats reflects and intrudes into the memory of the Easter Rising with a critical lens.

Yeats, W.B., The Poems: A New Edition, edited by Richard J. Finneran. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company 1983.

Longley, Edna. Living Stream: Literature and Revisionism in Ireland. Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Bloodaxe Books, 1994.