Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Can you relate to the kinds of things Yeats is talking about in "Easter, 1916"? Have you ever felt like you were standing on the sidelines of history because you feel detached from what's happening in the world? How so?
- What do you make of the fact that Yeats and his poetry is more famous than any of the people who died in the Easter Uprising? How does this affect your reading of the poem?
- What is Yeats getting at when he compares the Irish freedom fighters to a stone sitting at the bottom of a stream? How are these people like the stone? What is going on around the stone?
- What kind of person does Yeats come across as being in this poem? What do you conclude about his personality based on the stuff he says?
- At the end of the day, how does Yeats feel about the people who died in the Easter Uprising? Does he admire them or pity them? Or something in between? Please use examples from the poem to back up your answer.
- What does this poem tell us about Yeats' view of women getting into politics? Is he generally progressive or conservative on this issue? How can you tell?