UNIVERSITY OF ASIA PACIFIC

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
ENG 410 20th Century Drama and Poetry
Thesis Topic: Representation of Irish Culture in Yeats’s poem -
Easter 1916

Submitted To:
Sharifa Akter
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Asia Pacific, Dhaka

Submitted By:
Mehejabin Akter
Reg. No.: 14216006
Fourth Year Second Semester
Department of English
University of Asia Pacific, Dhaka
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 Representation of Irish Culture in Yeats’s poem - Easter 1916

Abstract

Irish cultural identity continues to be discussed in various ways including

science, culture, literary humanities as well as political debates. Irish cultural
identity closely related with the power of the British Empire. William Butler Yeats
creates an image of Irish history by using his poetic verse. The aim of the study is
to analyze the some famous of William Butler Yeats in light of Irish culture.

Keywords: Poetry, Yeats, Culture, Irish

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Introduction

W.B. Yeats sketch Irish mythology in his poems. He is not simply intent to retell the
Irish legends but also his desire to surpass his folk-lore material is a constant pre-
occupation with him. Though, he is an Irishman, he is keenly attached to his country
by bonds of lineages and pride in his country’s antiquity and folklores. He gradually
became cynical when he felt the violence and hatred of the Irish political leaders. The
mythology of Irish is not a simple things but also more deeply political. He tries to
revive the folk art of his country as golden dream of king and peasant.

Literature Review

Most critical studies focus on the post 1800 Irish Literature because it was written by dint

of the colonial tongue, namely English. It is transition from the authentic, pre 1800, Irish

literature to tile, 'post 1800, Anglo-Irish hybrid literature. Here we may project this literary

transition on the Irish subject, who was transformed by the agencies of English

colonialism from being an indigenous subject, merely Irish, to a 'post-subject', i.e. Anglo-

Irish. This colonial outcome stands for a hyphenated being that is neithernor or hybrid. In

fact, as a part of the British empire Ireland and its people were affected, like other post-

colonial countries, by the colonial culture and, especially, by the colonial representation.

In this respect, Kathleen Noonan argues that for Edmund Spencer, Sir John Davies and

Henry Jones the "Irish are characterized as victims of history" [3, p.156].

As an instance, the Irish were often re-presented as 'savage' and 'barbarous' as far back

as the travels of Fynes Moryson and his Itinerary of 1617 [3, p.10]. These colonial,

canonical misrepresentations led to the creation of numerous stereotypical views about

the Irish subjects. Hence, what emerges is that the Irish colonial identity had been

molded by the English colonial representations of the Irish as a subsidiary subject.

Otherwise, Anglo-Irish identity had been a mere colonial construction that is detached from the

real identity of Irish people. As expressed by Lori Rogers in his seminal book Feminine

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Nation: "Irishness is not primarily a question of birth or blood or language; it is the

condition of being involved in the Irish situation and usually of being mauled by it" [4].

What emerges here is that Irishness, or the idea of an Irish nation, is totally different from

the western-molded modem 'nation state' with its historical and cultural foundations.

We should emphasize, in fact, the liminal, 'rhizomatic', image of the Irish nation which
is formed by an amalgamation of different signifiers. As put by Homi Bhabha
"[n]ations like narratives, lose their origins in the myths of time and only fully realize
their horizon in the mind's eye" [5]. Such an image echoes the modern nation's
ambivalent emergence which is a translation of a narrated, 'imagined community'. As
such, the Irish, as both a concept and identity, is overwhelmed by ambiguity and
ambivalence and that fact obviously makes him an outstanding victim of history.

To sum up, the Irish colonial identity epitomizes the long history of colonization
in Ireland which affected much the political and cultural assumptions of and
about the Irish people. Indeed, Irishness has become a worldwide postcolonial
issue that is widely discussed within the cultural and literary circles.

Discussion:

W.B. Yeats’ great Irish poem is “Easter 1916”. This poem has great significance to
express Yeats’s mind of thought about the Irish culture. For Yeats Easter uprising of
1916 came to have a great significance. For Yeats, people involved in this uprising
had changed everything. The poem shows Yeats’ reformed approach of appreciation
for the Irish revolutions and ransoms. It is a challenge to change not only into the
open world but into a great flow of public world which is called history.

All changed, changed utterly

A terrible beauty is born.

It is an endeavor by W.B. Yeats to refurbish the Irish revolution by restoring its soul. Yeats

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has been described as a last of the romantics and the first of the moderns. It means he

carried both romanticism and modernism. He is an Irish poet. Yeats is very much

alarmed with Irish history, Irish folk-lore and Irish fight for freedom. Yeats loved the

sound of words and used them to create rich grain in his poetry. In his poetry, the

readers notice Irish place-names and the names of figures in Irish legend and history.

Yeats’ Irishness was much more than political. Yeats’ Irishnesss was more
focused with the cultivation of the taste of Irish people than with the
struggle of parties group around him.

Yeats’ Nationalism was liberal and broad. It is very clear from his repeated
attacks on narrow-minded nationalists.

Yeats, steadily moved away from the existing fanaticism of Iris politics. As the
poem like “Easter 1916” makes it crystal clear, even in his disenchantment
with Irish passion. Yeats never stopped responding quickly and sincerely to
the heroism of martyrs, some of whom he may not have liked personally.

What is it but nightfall?

The second section of the poem sketches the personalities of the nationalists before their

destruction in the Easter rising. Maud Gonne was one of them, beautiful when young, had spoiled

her beauty in the favor of politics agitation. Another was the poet and the school teacher. A third

had shown sensitivity and intellectual daring, a fourth has seemed only a drunken vain. The

beauty which is born out of these deaths is a terrible beauty.

Too long a sacrifice

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Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?

Yeats’ sense of his own identity and function as a poet began to take shape in the

context of Irish nationalism and shows his deliberate and many sided effort to provide

the Irish national movement some finer notice than mere hatred of the English.

Yeats complained of the political class in Ireland, the lower middle from
which the patriotic associations have drawn their leaders for the past ten
years. These people are burning in fire of deep hatred for English.

Conclusion:
The poem contains the result of Yeats’ contemplation on the real nature of
these people’s sacrifices who last their lives in the Easter uprising of 1916. At
the same time Yeats succeed in conveying that the Irish people sacrifices in
their freedom struggle were prolonged and spread over a long period.

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Works Cited
Chatterjee, Bhabatosh. The Poetry of W.B.Yeats. Calcutta: Sarat Book
Distributors, 1962. Print.
Sen, S.C. Four Essays on the Poetry of Yeats. Shantiniketan: Viswa Bharati, 1968.

Print. Kearney, Richard (ed.). States of Mind: Dialogues with Contemporary Continental
Thinkers. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984. Print.

Leavis, F. R. New Bearings in English Poetry. London: Chatto and Windus, 1941. Print.

O’ Brien, Eugene. The Question of Irish Identity in the Writing of W. B. Yeats and James
Joyce. limerick.academia.edu/EugeneOBrien/Books/140672/The_Question - 639k-. Web.

Meimandi, Mohammad Nabi. ‘JUST AS STRENUOUS A NATIONALIST AS EVER’,

W.B. YEATS AND POSTCOLONIALISM: TENSIONS, AMBIGUITIES,
AND UNCERTAINTIES. Phd. Thesis. University of Birmingham, 2007.
Yeats, W.B. Explorations. London: Macmillan, 1962. Print.