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Yet they were of a different kind,
The names that stilled your childish play,
They have gone about the world like wind,
But little time had they to pray
For whom the hangman’s rope was spun,
And what, God help us, could they save?
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.

Was it for this the wild geese spread
They grey wing upon every tide;
For this that all the blood was shed,
For this Edward Fitzgerald died,
And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone,
All that delirium of the brave?
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.

Yet could we turn the years again,
And call those exiles as they were
In all their loneliness and pain,
You’d cry, “Some woman’s yellow hair
Has maddened every mother’s son”:
They weighed so lightly what they gave
But let them be they’re dead and gone,
They’re with O’Leary in the grave.

Background:

A scathing/ withering attack by Yeats on the commercial and middle classes of Dublin. His reasons for this were two-fold; the first being the ruthlessness and inhumanity of the employers who locked out the workers of 1913 during the Strike & Lock-Out. Yeats felt that they were being excessively cruel, especially to families who relied entirely on the meagre wages of the men who worked there. The second reason was more personal; the refusal of many businesses to back the housing of the Lane Collection in a new art gallery. In this poem, Yeats neatly sums up what he perceives as the almost base interests of the middle-class employers; money and appearances. Yeats often wrote about the conflict between myth & reality; a romantic and idealised past contrasting with a vulgar, almost visceral present.

Stanza 1:

• ‘being come to sense’ – realistic, cynical and mindful of your own interests
• “fumble in a greasy till” – vulgar image of a miserly owner who is entirely obsessed with money
• “add… prayer to shivering prayer” – an image of pious, yet insincere Catholicism, purely for their own self-interest
• “dried the marrow from the bone” – sucked the life out of everything
• “For men were born to pray and save” – an obviously sarcastic line directed at the middle class employers

• “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone; It’s with O’Leary in the grave” – an uncomfortable comparison between the self-interest of employers in 1913 and the heroic Irish who had sacrificed everything for Ireland’s freedom.

Stanza 2:

•  “Yet they were of a different kind, the names that stilled your childish play” – the heroic dead who captivated every Irish person, even as children
• “gone about the world like wind” – they have fled to every other part of the world due to persecution
• “For whom the hangman’s rope was spun” – those who fought for Ireland were destined to be executed
• “And what, God help us, could they save?” – though their cause was futile, it was worthy nonetheless

Stanza 3:

•  “Was it for this the Wild Geese ……. tide” – Did those heroic Irish sacrifice everything to create a cynical, selfish Ireland?
• “All that delirium of the brave?” – did they sacrifice everything in a passion of heroism for a cynical Ireland, abusive to its own people?

Stanza 4:

•  “Some woman’s yellow hair has maddened every mother’s son”: – the dream of an independent Ireland has radicalised every young man
• “They weighed so lightly what they gave” – those heroes sacrificed everything, knowing the price, but deeming it worthy of their lives