I write it out in a verse- MacDonagh and MacBride And Connolly and Pearse Now and in time to be, Wherever green is worn, Are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Yeats commemorates the Easter Rising, noting how the martyrs changed Ireland into a place of terrible beauty.
- In plain terms
- The martyrs are remembered and Ireland is changed forever by their sacrifice.
- What can you take from it?
- Revolutionary sacrifice changes a nation forever.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When does sacrifice create beauty?
- How do we remember heroes?
Another view
It romanticizes political violence as beautiful.
More from William Butler Yeats
O when may it suffice? That is heaven's part, our part To murmur name upon name.
Permalink to quote #92 Imagining in excited reverie That the future years had come, Dancing to a frenzied drum, Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.
Permalink to quote #94 Too long a sacrifice Can make a stone of the heart.
Permalink to quote #91
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