September 1913

September 1913

·         4 stanzas 8 lines each. The last two lines of each stanza form a refrain. Control of poetic form displayed, end rhymes make it like a song – the ‘great art’ he talks of?

·         Nationlism/Irish concerns. Expressing the change of Ireland from when it was cultural and romantic. Criticism of the episteme in which he lives.

o   Characterized by the romantic heroes such as ‘O’Leary’ to the greed of the merchant class. Yeats agrees with aims of revolutionaries but feels little is achieved.

o   You – directly addresses the Irish people, particularly the newly prosperous middle class Catholics. Directs his concern about the state of Ireland to them

o   Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, / It’s with O’Leary in the grave – refrain expresses his horror at modern Ireland. The romantic nationalist dream is dead. Bleak/morbid image

o   And what, God help us, could they save? – despair/denunciation of Ireland. Rhetorical question emphasises dramatic quality of the sentiment

o   Delirium of the brave – like the…