September 1913

September 1913

War
1. "They weighed so lightly what they gave" - the heros sacrificed themselved - they weighed their life so lightly and gave it away so easily - he see's no point in this dissalusioned bravery esp. since they achieved nothing
Freedom
1. "They have gone about the world like wind" - depicting them as powerful, unstoppable and aided by nature, wind is liberal and unrestricted.
Death
1. The futility of death
  1. "could they save?" what was the point of their heroic deaths - what did they fight for the world is evidently still full of corruption - they wasted their lives
    1. All the violence was pointless - violence is not the way forward - "for all this blood was shed" and still there are men who were adding a "prayer to shivering prayer"
      1. Easter 1916 - again the hero's here "might have won fame" but are now dead and wasted their lives - these questions make us contemplate whether it is right
    2. Easter 1916 the same kinds of rhetorical questions - " O when may it suffice?" asks himself when does this end
  2. "was it for this the wild geese spread" - he is asking a rhetorical q. was it to anyway end up in this situation that these hero's fought?
    1. He repeats how heroic these people were and showing how desperatly disappointed he is to get justice on behalf of these men.
  4. "all that delirium of the brave" - futility of their fight and death - "delirium" they were crazed and mad for attempting this for it only consumed them and for what?
    1. - Easter 1916 – ‘ignorant good will’
Corruption
1. The weak workers are being exploited by the employers who "dried the marrow from the bone" - this cruel animalistic behaviour shows how savage these people have become - the marrow is the good in the bone - these ppl are getting extracting the good from these ppl.
  1. how greedy the employers have become and in general how affected society has become by money as to - "add the halfpence to the pence" this insignificant amount of money would not affect the rich employers but is what keeps the worker alive
    1. In T.F he also shows how Ireland has become so corrupted and nothing is done about it - the "insolent unreproved" and the "catch-cries of the clown"
2. "fumble in a greasy till" - this is the unpleasant side of the commercial world - they are fumbling which reminds us of ppl robbing which reflects how the workers feel that the managers are stealing from them
3. "men were born to pray and save" how people should be helping them but are not Also ppl could read 2 meanings into the "save" the greedy see the saving of money whilst the humble see saving - spiritually, the poor from these greedy rich
4. ‘dried the marrow from the bone’ and literally sucked the life out of Ireland, left it brittle – this can be compared to Leda and the Swan, ‘before the indifferent beak could let her drop’, the swan has taken all that it needs from Leda and has no care for her now, much like Britain taking even ‘the marrow’ in Ireland and then leaving.
Structure
1. It is a Ballad, Simple ABAB rhyme scheme, as simple structures and carry political messages better.
  1. strong rhyme
  2. Tone: confrontational - scourful
  3. this was a popular form in Irish culture
2. Refrain - "Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, It's with O'Leary in the grave" - this shows his disappointment of how the world is changing and how the old Ireland has gone with it.
  1. Similarly S.C has this melancholy refrain
  2. Each stanza ends in refrain. the 'grave.' showing finality.
3. a lot of enjambment as there is only one "." at the end and if not only semi-colons and commas. - more a train of thought or like a speech.
Ireland / Nationalism
1. he shows here how Ireland has become corrupt - "you have dried the marrow from the bone" no longer the "Romantic Ireland"
  1. Yeats expresses frustration towards Ireland and the rebels, how violence is not the way forward,
    1. Easter 1916- mourning the loss of romantic Ireland 'ignorant good will' lives wasted fighting-could revolve with art. + he mentions the specific people again " This man had kept a school"
2. The mention of real rebels "O'Leary in the grave" and "Edward Fitzgerald died"
  1. John O'Leary was a grandfather figure to him and represented respect and ideas, he believed revolution could be born of art. He was highly influential to Yeats.
Justice
1. "All that delirium of the brave?" he is trying to spur on rebellion so to bring justice to the men who died for the cause.
2. He names the men and they would have been well known at the time - they all got killed for fighting for justice - this is why they were heros
  1. E.16 "so daring and sweet his thought" here we see how innocent this man is - he had such good intentions
Idolisation
Disappointment
1. -Easter 1916 -Broken.D - T.S.C

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