‘A terrible beauty is born’
WB Yeats’s poignant words have come to immortalise the complex legacy of the Easter Rising, 1916. The poetry that emerged at this time of upheaval in Ireland gave voice to the thoughts of a generation. Yeats’s poem, ‘Easter 1916’, sits alongside selected works of other major poets of the era. These include Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Joseph Plunkett, who were executed for their part in the Rising.
In the aftermath of the Rising an outpouring of poetry also expressed the shock and grief of literary figures such as Padraic Colum, Francis Ledwidge, Eva Gore-Booth, James Stephens, Dora Sigerson Shorter and Seán O’Casey. Rebels, soldiers, honorary Irishmen, sympathisers and exiles all held up a mirror, in verse, to the events, beliefs and desires bound up in 1916.
A COUNTRY’S AWAKENING 11
THE CONFLUENCE OF DREAMS
Pádraic Pearse (1879–1916) 17
The Rebel 21
Fornocht Do Chonac Thú 24
Renunciation (Translation of Fornocht Do Chonac Thú) 26
The Fool 28
Mise Éire 30
I Am Ireland (Translation of Mise Éire) 31
The Mother 32
The Wayfarer 33
Thomas MacDonagh (1878–1916) 35
Wishes for My Son 39
Of a Poet Patriot 42
An Bonnán Buí 43
The Yellow Bittern (Translation of An Bonnán Buí by Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Gunna) 45
The Poet Captain 47
Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887–1916) 51
I See His Blood upon the Rose 55
The Little Black Rose Shall be Red at Last 56
The Stars Sang in God’s Garden 57
This Heritage to the Race of Kings 58
The Dark Way 59
To Grace 61
WHEN THE DAWN IS COME
George William Russell (Æ) (1867–1935) 65
A Leader 68
On Behalf of Some Irishmen Not Followers of Tradition 69
Salutation 71
Continuity 73
Francis Ledwidge (1887–1917) 75
Thomas MacDonagh 79
Ireland 80
To Mrs Joseph Plunkett 81
The Dead Kings 82
O’Connell Street 84
A Soldier’s Grave 85
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) 87
Easter 1916 91
Sixteen Dead Men 95
The Rose Tree 96
In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz 97
AFTERMATH & REQUIEM
Eva Gore-Booth (1870–1926) 101
Heroic Death, 1916 103
Easter Week 104
Comrades 104
Francis Sheehy-Skeffington 105
Roger Casement 106
Dermot O’Byrne (Sir Arnold Bax) (1883–1953) 109
A Dublin Ballad—1916 111
Martial Law in Dublin 114
Shells at Oranmore 115
James Stephens (1880–1950) 117
Spring—1916 119
Seán O’Casey (1880–1964) 125
Thomas Ashe 127
Thomas Ashe (1885–1917) 129
Let Me Carry Your Cross for Ireland, Lord! 132
Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) 135
Easter Week 137
Joseph Campbell (1879–1944) 139
Fires 142
The Storm-Thrush on the Shaking Tree 143
Dora Sigerson Shorter (1866–1918) 145
The Star 147
The Dead Soldier 148
Padraic Colum (1881–1972) 151
The Rebel. Roger Casement, 1864–1916 153
Canon Charles O’Neill (1887–1963) 154
The Foggy Dew 155
Index of first lines 158
