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.
