Young Writers Society

If anyone could help me identify how the theme of rebirth is used in the poem "Easter, 1916", I would be extremely gratefullllll.

Here's the poem:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/easter-1916/

Urgh. I'm afraid poetry is not my 'thing'.

I suggest you PM people who critique in the poetry forum on a fairly regular basis - they should know what they're talking about.

Oh, and for future reference, if you put what subject this comes under in the title of the post (ie. Poetry help), then the people who are good with poetry will be attracted to it. That way, you get a lot of comments from the right people, instead of no comments from anybody

-Kyle

Well, this is quite hard. Eeek. I'll try my best but don't rely solely on me!

Stanza two seems to represent re-birth quite well, with the tales of the different people. You could interpret it to mean that these people are the authors past lives.

The last sentences in a few of the stanzas reads 'a terrible beauty is born'. This outwardly shows 'birth'. The poem is about change, and re-birth is a massive change. It is about transformation, turning over a new leaf - rebirth.

Having said that I know that this poem is actually completely based on The Easter Rising in Eire, so what I just said may be irrelevant.

Sorry I couldn't really help more.

Alainna
xx

Ah, does this count as cheating? ^_^

Haven't much idea, says the Vogon, about themes and stuff in poetry, but these lines seemed significant:

All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;

Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

What's the background behind the poem? It's saying about how people have changed, so look up why he was writing it and what's the idea behind it all. I'm assuming the title is a date of the changes?

I agree with Twit--look up some information at the background of the poem and see if there's anything significant between the time it was written and the theme of 'rebirth'. That'll help you not only get a an abstract view of the topic but a more concrete one as well.

And if there isn't any significant historical event to connect it to--what about Easter? What does Easter and rebirth have to do with this poem?

I actually read this poem for history. It's called Easter 1916 because it's about the Easter Rising, which was a turning point in Irish history...

although admittedly I'm guessing I'm a bit late with that information...