English Literature / Unit 16 ENL 1509 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"Easter 1916"
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The idea
"Easter 1916" responds to the Easter Rising against British rule. Yeats records his torn feelings toward the executed rebels, including Maud Gonne's husband, John MacBride, whom he had disliked. Its refrain declares them "changed, changed utterly: / A terrible beauty is born."
In practice
A refrain: a terrible beauty.
Where people slip
The poem is ambivalent about sacrifice.
Your place on the trail
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