Question

Which lines in this excerpt from W.B. Yeats's "Easter, 1916" suggest that his response to the Easter Rising goes beyond personal animosity?
That woman's days were spent
In ignorant good-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill.
What voice more sweet than hers
When, young and beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a school
And rode our wingèd horse;
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Answer 1

The correct answer and the lines in this excerpt from W.B. Yeats's "Easter, 1916" that suggest that his response to the Easter Rising goes beyond personal animosity are: "He had done most bitter wrong/To some who are near my heart,/Yet I number him in the song"

In 1816, during Easter week, Irish nationalists armed and tried to seize control of the country from English rule. The English sent the army to suffocate the revolt and at the end of it, 300 pleople had died and 17 were condemned to be hanged. In this poem, Yeats is trying to come to terms with the events and the outcome of the Easter Rising, people he knew that died in it, or whether the uprising was a good or bad idea. The mentioned lines show that even though this person hurt some who were near his heart, he acknowledges him and his legacy should be considered in the song.

Answer 2

Answer:

He had done most bitter wrong

To some who are near my heart,

Yet I number him in the song;

Explanation:

The Easter Rising took place in Dublin, Ireland, on Easter Monday in 1916. A group of leaders and revolutionaries occupied government buildings and proclaimed Ireland as a Republic independent from England.

The author of the poem "Easter, 1916", William B. Yeats, in the stanza we are analyzing here, mentions the people he knew who were among the revolutionaries. He mentions even his own enemy, John MacBride, that he describes as a " drunken, vainglorious lout." Throughout his life, Yeats was in love with the woman MacBride married - MacBride was accused of physically abusing her. Yeats has, thus, his reasons to hate this man and yet, as he says in the line, he numbers him in the song. MacBride too fought for independence. He too died for doing so. Yeats acknowledges his bravery for that reason, leaving personal animosity aside.