revised critical 2

In “Easter 1916” Yeats is expressing his feelings on the Irish rebellion that took place. He is impressed by the bravery of the Irish while fighting the British, and feels that this type of war is necessary. In his poem Yeats repeats the line “A terrible beauty is born”. He is referring to the rebellion. It is terrible because there is so much fighting and death. However there is beauty in the Irish fighting for their freedom from the British. Yeats says that sacrifice can cause long term negativity. He says “Too long a sacrifice Can make a stone of the Heart”. He is saying that when people sacrifice for long periods of time they become continuously miserable. Overall Yeats has pride in his Irish people and recognizes that their sacrifices have burdened them.

Isaac Rosenberg describes the dark side of war in “Dead Man’s Stump”. This is very different from Yeats’ “Easter 1916”. Firstly Rosenberg uses a lot of imagery to describe the horrors of war. In the first stanza he talks about the unfortunate state of limbers. The limbers (which according to the dictionary on Microsoft Word are vehicles for transporting large guns) are rusty and sitting on a shattered track. He goes on in the second stanza to describe how the wheels are running over the bodies of the dead. This shows a big difference in the way Yeats and Rosenberg look at war. Yeats believed that war was (as previously mentioned) “A terrible beauty…” while Rosenberg only describes the destruction war can cause.