A Terrible Beauty E-Book
8,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: The O'Brien Press
- Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015
'A terrible beauty is born' WB Yeats's poignant words have come to immortalise the complex legacy of the Easter Rising, 1916. The poetry that emerged at this time of upheaval in Ireland gave voice to the thoughts of a generation. Yeats's poem, 'Easter 1916', sits alongside selected works of other major poets of the era. These include Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Joseph Plunkett, who were executed for their part in the Rising. In the aftermath of the Rising an outpouring of poetry also expressed the shock and grief of literary figures such as Padraic Colum, Francis Ledwidge, Eva Gore-Booth, James Stephens, Dora Sigerson Shorter and Seán O'Casey. Rebels, soldiers, honorary Irishmen, sympathisers and exiles all held up a mirror, in verse, to the events, beliefs and desires bound up in 1916.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Ähnliche
Acknowledgements
Sincere thanks to the Librarian and staff of the Library of the Royal Irish Academy and also to the staff at Special Collections in University College Dublin for their generous assistance and for allowing access to their unique material.
The editor and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission to include the following copyright material:
Bax, Arnold (Dermot O’Byrne): ‘A Dublin Ballad—1916’, ‘Martial Law in Dublin’, ‘Shells at Oranmore’. The poems are reproduced by permission of the Bax Estate and are copyright.
Colum, Padraic: ‘The Rebel. Roger Casement, 1864–1916’. By kind permission of the Estate of Padraic Colum.
O’Casey, Seán: ‘Thomas Ashe’ © The Estate of Seán O’Casey. By kind permission of the Estate of Seán O’Casey, care of Macnaughton Lord Representation of 44 South Molton Street, London, W1K 5RT.
Stephens, James: ‘Spring—1916’. Reproduced by permission of The Society of Authors as the literary representatives of the Estate of James Stephens.
Table of Contents
A Country’s Awakening
The trauma of the Great Famine had left Ireland with a fractured society and a culture on the verge of extinction. The drain of emigration, the near demise of the Irish language, alongside the erosion of modes of thought and knowledge from past generations were causing a slow death for a national culture.
However, by the end of the nineteenth century improved literacy, more secure land tenure and an increased politicisation of the people had led to a reawakening of a sense of Irishness. The stage was set for a life-giving movement inspired by a new generation of Irish people – people of vision and energy, idealists who found a cause in saving and promoting Irish culture. There was a prevailing atmosphere of renewal and youth which brought a revitalised energy to the Irish language, the visual arts, literature, the theatre and the sporting arena. A new enthusiasm for the ancient Gaelic games of football and hurling was generated with the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1884; the Gaelic League was founded by Douglas Hyde, Eoin MacNeill and others with the purpose of restoring and promoting Irish language and culture; Irish music was celebrated through the Feis Ceoil, founded in 1897. The glories of early Celtic art found a new life under the momentum of the Irish Arts and Crafts movement; this was expressed in the works of artists such as Sarah Purser, who established the stained-glass studio of An Túr Gloine, and in the various artistic enterprises of the Yeats sisters.
While WB Yeats and Lady Gregory were committed to founding a national theatre, Dublin was full of theatres run by the young. Pádraic Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh and Joseph Mary Plunkett, whose poetic works are included in this book, were all engaged in theatrical pursuits: writing and staging plays, and founding theatres and literary journals. All three were poets and writers and, like many of their associates, they were engaged in every aspect of the cultural revival.
Poetry had a long history of living underground in the Gaelic tradition, and dreams of nationhood and the longing for freedom found expression in a particular way in poetry. Little wonder, then, that the same three poets, Pearse, MacDonagh and Plunkett, were among those who walked out on Easter Monday morning 1916 to set their country free. Their poetry expresses that longing for freedom that the authorities, fully taken up with parliamentarian and rebel movements, were blind to.
In the aftermath of the Rising, the executions of the leaders and their callous burial without ceremony in a mass grave* generated an outpouring of poetry. Written by almost every poet who took part in the literary revival, these poems, many of which are placed in this collection, gave words to the depth of anger, pride, grief and identity growing amongst the people.
The Rising was a glorious failure, but a people was awakening to the possibilities of nationhood, and the transforming events of Easter 1916 were immortalised by the poet WB Yeats: ‘All changed, changed utterly, a terrible beauty is born.’
*Fourteen of the leaders were buried in a mass grave at Arbour Hill in Dublin. Thomas Kent was executed in Cork and buried in the grounds of Cork Prison. Roger Casement was hanged in Pentonville Prison in London in August 1916, and buried in quick lime.
