Easter, 1916 is a poem by W. B. Yeats describing the poet's torn emotions regarding the events of the Easter Rising staged in Ireland against British rule on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916. The uprising was unsuccessful, and most of the Irish republican leaders involved were executed. The poem was written between May and September 1916, printed privately, 25 copies, and appeared in magazines in 1920 but first published in 1920 in the collection Michael Robartes and the Dancer.
The ruined General Post Office after the Easter Rising, 1916.
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist and writer, and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. He was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature, and later served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State.
Yeats photographed in 1903 by Alice Boughton
1900 portrait by Yeats's father, John Butler Yeats
Maud Gonne (c. 1900)
W. B. Yeats (no date)