Easter 1916 di Yeats: analisi

EASTER 1916 LITERATY ANALYSIS

Easter 1916 By W.B.

Yeats
The poem is divided in four stanzas.
1.    STANZA
v.1 I: The poet is speaking
v.1 them: the rebels; the poet know them.
v.2 vivid: it means full of life and energy. Rebels were considered energyc, they were happy.
v.3 grey: it is related to the past.
v.6 polite meaningless words: it is repeated twice; "meaningless" can mean "formal", in this sense we can say that their acquaintance was superficial, they were not friends.
v.10 the atmosphere was anyway amusing, happy
v.14 motley: we can consider them actors in their society, but then all changed
vv.14/16 are very important: they refer to the theatre, and are expressed again in the end of the 2nd stanza. They lived as they were on a stage. Th e characters may have a mask. This reinforce the idea of their superficial acquaintance.  

EASTER 1916 ANALYSIS

2.    STANZA
The poem was written to commemorate people who died.
v.17 the first protagonist is a woman. The woman thought that what she was doing was right, but the presence of "ignorant" means that the poet did not approve this "good-will" of the Irish cause. It is a personal judgement of the author. The woman wasted some of her feminine aspects. She change her voice from sweet to shrill. There is a sort of nostalgia for the past situation.
v.24 the second protagonist is the man
v.25 winged horse: it is referred to Pegaso, but it can also have a symbolical meaning: it can refer to freedom or to the dreamer nature of men.
v.26 the third protagonist is another man: the poet says that he is losing his positive features, such as his sensitive side, and his sweet thoughts (as well as the previous woman).
These people are wasting a part of their personal life.
v.31 the fourth protagonist, a drunken. The poet mentions him even if this man is supposed to have brought a "bitter wrong" to a woman he loved. But everything has changed, and also this men deserves to be commemorated.
v.37 casual: the protagonist has not decided the comedy, he is living minute by minute. This is an other image related to theatre.

Easter 1916: analisi e commento in inglese

EASTER 1916 YEATS ANALISI

Comparisons with the 1st stanza:
- vv.14/16 and 37/40 are similar, they have the same meaning, they both refer to the theatre
- the 1st stanza is positive; instead the 2nd one explains the poet's judgement about the protagonists, which is not completely positive.
In particular the poet seems sorry for this other men. In fact all these protagonists could be good or bad but they deserve being commemorate.