I was impressed with the repeated line “All changed, changed
utterly/A terrible beauty is born” in Easter 1916. The author used it many
times in order to bring up the point that everything has “changed utterly” for
him. For instances, their relationship had changed from “polite meaningless” to
the part where he was able to mention their names at the end. The “beauty”
described how Irish people come together and work towards finding their independence
from England. However, their life was terrible because the fight for
independence caused their death in blood soak history. Their bloodshed and
death became beauty as they stood up for their beloved country.
I like how the
author promoted the memory of these revolutionaries by questioning “Was it
needless death after all”. Their death would become needless if their
sacrifices were forgotten. He further promoted people to follow their steps and
continue their works of change for independence. Yeats was successful to
express his critical and compassionate mind that make the readers to follow
sympathetically the event happened during 1916.
I agree that the deaths would become meaningless and needless if their sacrifices were forgotten. Yeats does well to remember that even as we progress through life we must look back on the events that led us to where we are. If we fail to do so we are forgetting all of the people that have changed how we live and act.
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