This
was William Butler Yeats's conclusion in his poem "Easter 1916" on the
insurrection in Dublin and its aftermath. Writing within a few months of
the rebellion he reveals an ambivalence towards it rather than the
laudatory account that might have been expected from an unofficial
national bard with early cultural roots in Gaelic revivalism.
The
importance of the Rising in Irish history is still disputed although it
was undeniably a step on a path leading to dramatic shifts in political
power, guerrilla warfare, a bloody civil war, separation and the
emergence of an Irish Free State which was a disappointment to many of
the actors in the drama.
Famous
for constantly rewriting his work even after publication, Yeats later
ruminated on his possible contribution to the revolt
"That play of mind sent out
Certain men the English shot"
and his own doubts about the nascent Free State
"That is not," I say,
"The dead Ireland of my youth,but an Ireland
The poets have imagined, terrible and gay."
In
this talk I propose to consider some of the formative literary and
cultural influences on the Rising and the subsequent literature it
shaped.
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