W.B.Yeats

[catriona_subaru]

hey, does any know where i can find information on the poem september 1913. please i can't seem to find anything on it anywhere!!!! :cool: :cool:

[IrishCanadian]

This is my rushed typing (copying from my Yeats Anthology) so please be patient with any typ-os. :)

September 1913

What need you, being come to sence,
But fumble in a greasy till
Amd add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone?
For men were born to pray and save:
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

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 goone
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Was it for this the wild geese spread
The 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 thei lonliness and pain,
You'd cry, "Some woman's yellow hair
Has maddened every mother's son":
They wieghed so lightely what they gave.
But let them be, they're dead and gone,
They're with O'Leary in the grave.


What a fantastic poem! I love Yeats. What did you need it for?

[catriona_subaru]

i need it for skool, i need to get the understanding of the poem, and the hidden meaning behind it. some thing like that!!!!

[Petrarch's Love]

If you just need some historical background and other notes to help you understand the poem better you might start by looking at the glosses in volume two of The Norton Anthology of English Literature, which is probably available at your school or local library.

[IrishCanadian]

I wont give you any direct information about the struggle that Ireland was going through at the time because you cannot quote me as a source for a school paper ... but i would love to know how the project goes: this is a fascinating subject! Best of luck!