Theme 3: Poems on Political Oppression:
|
Trait |
."Ozymandias" |
|
|
poet |
Yeats |
Shelley |
|
theme |
in Praise of the Four Patriots |
Tyrants are mortal |
|
mode |
6 verses; free verse |
sonnet |
Celebrating Victims of Political Oppression in Poetry
In "Easter 1916" William Butler Yeats is commemorating the insurrection of Easter 1916 when patriots beseiged the Dublin GPO for some days and proclaimed the independence of Ireland. It follows the shelving of the Home Rule Bill at the outbreak of war. Although MacBride, Macdonagh, Connolly and Pearse did not survive, Yeats claims that in their executions "A terrible beauty is born", that is, national heroes were created.
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