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1916

The Mother Paidrig Pearse

 I do not grudge them: Lord, I do not grudge My two strong sons that I have seen go out To break their strength and die, they and a few, In bloody protest for a glorious thing,They shall be spoken of among their people,The generations shall remember them, And call them blessed; ut I will speak their names to my own heart  In the long nights;

The little names that were familiar once !ound my dead hearth" Lord, thou art hard on mothers:#e suffer in their coming and their going; And tho$ I grudge them not, I weary, weary%f the long sorrow & And yet I have my 'oy: My sons were faithful, and they fought"

I See His Blood Upon The Rose Joesph Plunkett

 I see his blood upon the rose And in the stars the glory of his eyes, (is body gleams amid eternal snows, (is tears fall from the skies"

 I see his face in every flower;The thunder and the singing of the birds

 Are but his voice&and carven by his power !ocks are his written words"

 All pathways by his feet are worn, (is strong heart stirs the ever&beating sea, (is crown of thorns is twined with every thorn, (is cross is every tree"

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The Foggy Dew Cannon Charles oeil

 As down the glen one )aster morn to acity fair rode I There armed lines of marching men ins*uadrons passed me by +o fife did hum nor battle drum did sound its dread tattoo ut the Angelus bell oer the Liffey swell rang out through the foggy dew

 !ight proudly high over -ublin townthey hung out the f lag of war

Twas better to die neath an Irish skythan at .uvla or .edd )l ahr And from the plains of !oyal Meathstrong men came hurrying through#hile ritannias (uns, with theirlong&range guns sailed in through the foggy dew

Twas ritannia bade our #ild /eese gothat small nations might be free ut their lonely graves are by .uvlaswaves or the shore of the /reat +orth .ea%h, had they died by 0earses side or fought with 1athal rughaTheir names we will keep where the 2enians sleep neath the shroud of the foggy dew

 ut the bravest fell, and the re*uiem bell rang mournfully and clear 2or those who died that )astertide in

the springing of the year And the world did ga3e, in deep ama3e,at those fearless men, but few#ho bore the fight that freedoms light might shine through the foggy dew

 Ah, back through the glen I rode againand my heart with grief was sore 2or I parted then with valiant menwhom I never shall see more

 ut to and fro in my dreams I go and  Id kneel and pray for you,

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 2or slavery f led, % glorious dead,#hen you fell in the foggy dew

The !ay"arer Paidrig Pearse

The beauty of the world hath made me sad,This beauty that will pass; .ometimes my heart hath shaken with great 'oyTo see a leaping s*uirrel in a tree,%r a red lady&bird upon a stalk,%r little rabbits in a field at evening, Lit by a slanting sun,%r some green hill where shadows drifted by .ome *uiet hill where mountainy man hath sown And soon would reap; near to the gate of (eaven;

%r children with bare feet upon the sands%f some ebbed sea, or playing on the streets%f little towns in 1onnacht,Things young and happy" And then my heart hath told me:These will pass,#ill pass and change, will die and be no more,Things bright and green, things young and happy; And I have gone upon my way .orrowful"

#aster$ %&%' ! B (eats

 I have met them at close of day1oming with vivid faces 2rom counter or desk among grey )ighteenth&century houses"

 I have passed with a nod of the head %r polite meaningless words,%r have lingered awhile and said  0olite meaningless words, And thought before I had done%f a mocking tale or a gibeTo please a companion Around the fire at the club, eing certain that they and I  ut lived where motley is worn:

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

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That womans days were spent  In ignorant good&will, (er nights in argument 4ntil her voice grew shrill"#hat voice more sweet than hers

#hen, young and beautiful, .he rode to harriers5 This man had kept a school  And rode our wing6d horse;This other his helper and friend #as coming into his force; (e might have won fame in the end, .o sensitive his nature seemed, .o daring and sweet his thought"This other man I had dreamed 

 A drunken, vainglorious lout" (e had done most bitter wrongTo some who are near my heart,7et I number him in the song; (e, too, has resigned his part  In the casual comedy; (e, too, has been changed in histurn,Transformed utterly: A terrible beauty is born"

 (earts with one purpose aloneThrough summer and winter seem )nchanted to a stoneTo trouble the living stream"The horse that comes from the road,The rider, the birds that range 2rom cloud to tumbling cloud, Minute by minute they change; A shadow of cloud on the stream1hanges minute by minute;

 A horse&hoof slides on the brim, And a horse plashes within it;The long&legged moor&hens dive, And hens to moor&cocks call; Minute by minute they live;The stones in the midst of all"

Too long a sacrifice1an make a stone of the heart"% when may it suffice5 That is (eavens part, our part To murmur name upon name, As a mother names her child 

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#hen sleep at last has come%n limbs that had run wild"#hat is it but nightfall5  +o, no, not night but death;#as it needless death after all5 

 2or )ngland may keep faith 2or all that is done and said"#e know their dream; enoughTo know they dreamed and are dead; And what if e8cess of love ewildered them till they died5  I write it out in a verse 9 Mac-onagh and Macride And 1onnolly and 0earse +ow and in time to be,

#herever green is worn, Are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born"

Connolly )ia* M+,owan

The man was all shot through that came today Into the barrack s*uare; A soldier I & I am not proud to say#e killed him there;They brought him from the prison hospital;To see him in that chair I thought his smile would far more *uickly call  A man to prayer" Maybe we cannot understand this thingThat makes these rebels die; And yet all things love freedom & and the .pring1lear in the sky; I think I would not do this deed again

 2or all that I hold by;/a3e down my rifle at his breast & but then A soldier I"They say that he was kindly & different too, Apart from all the rest; A lover of the poor; and all shot through, (is wounds ill drest, (e came before us, faced us like a man, (e knew a deeper painThan blows or bullets & ere the world began;

 -ied he in vain5  !eady & present; And he 'ust smiling & /od

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 I felt my rifle shake (is wounds were opened out and round that chair#as one red lake; I swear his lips said $2ire$ when all was still  efore my rifle spat 

That cursed lead & and I was picked to kill  A man like that

-!ishes For My Son$ Born .n St Ce+ilia-s Day$ %&%/-

Tho*as M+ Donagh

 +ow, my son, is life for you, And I wish you 'oy of it,& oy of power in all you do, -eeper passion, better wit Than I had who had enough,

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 -id not render clean and strong&#ho was I to 'udge my kind, lindest groper of the blind5 

/od to you may give the sight 

 And the clear, undoubting strength#ars to knit for single right, 2reedom$s war to knit at length, And to win through wrath and strife,To the se*uel of my life"

 ut for you, so small and young, orn on .aint 1ecilia$s -ay, I in more harmonious song +ow for nearer 'oys should pray&

 .impler 'oys: the natural growth%f your childhood and your youth,1ourage, innocence, and truth:

These for you, so small and young, In your hand and heart and tongue"

Co*rades #0a ,ore Booth

The peaceful night that round me flows, reaks through your iron prison doors, 2ree through the world your spirit goes, 2orbidden hands are clasping yours"The wind is our confederate,The night has left her doors a'ar,#e meet beyond earths barred gate,#here all the worlds wild !ebels are"

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Si1teen Dead Men ! B (eats

% but we talked at large beforeThe si8teen men were shot, ut who can talk of give and take,#hat should be and what not #hile those dead men are loitering thereTo stir the boiling pot5 

7ou say that we should still the land Till /ermanys overcome; ut who is there to argue that  +ow 0earse is deaf and dumb5  And is their logic to outweigh Mac-onaghs bony thumb5 

 (ow could you dream theyd listenThat have an ear alone 2or those new comrades they have found, Lord )dward and #olfe Tone,%r meddle with our give and takeThat converse bone to bone5 

I*perial Measure 2ona ,roarke

The kitchens of the Metropole and Imperial hotels yielded up to the Irish !epublictheir armory of fillet, brisket, flank" Though destined for more palatable tongues,it was pressed to service in an Irish stew and served on fine bone chinawith bread that turned to powder in their mouths" rioche, artichokes, tomatoestasted for the first time: staunch and sweet on Monday, but by Thursday,they had overstretched to spill their livid plenitude on the fires of .ackville .treet"

 A cow and her two calves were commandeered" %ne calf was killed,its harnessed blood clotting the morning like news that wasnt welcome

when, eventually, it came" The women managed the blood into black puddingswashed down with milk from the cow in the yard who smelt smoke on the wind

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and fire on the skin of her calf" #hose fear they took for loss and fretted with heruntil daylight crept between crossfire and the sights of Marrowbone Lane"

 rownies, .imnel cake, biscuits slumped under royal icing" =clairs with their creamalready turned" 1rackers, tonnes of them: the floor of acobs studded with crumbs,

so every footfall was a recoil from a gunshot across town, and the flakesa constant needling in mouths already seared by the one drink > a grossor two of cooking chocolate, stewed and taken without sweetener or milk" Its skin was riven every time the ladle dipped but, 'ust as *uickly, it sei3ed up again"

 +ellie /ifford magicked oatmeal and a half&crowned loaf to make porridgein a grate in the 1ollege of .urgeons where drawings of field surgeryhad spilled from 7pres to drench in wounds the whitewashed wallsof the lecture hall" #hen the porridge gave out, there was rice:a biscuit&tin of it for fourteen men, a ladleful each that scarcely knocked

the corners off their undiminished appetites; their vast, undaunted thirst"

The sacks of flour ballasting the garrison gave up their downy protest under fire" It might have been a fall of )aster snow sent to muffle the rifles or to deaden the aim" )very blow was a flurry that thickened the air of olands Mill, so breathwas ghosted by its own white conse*uence" The mens clothes were talced with it,as though they were newborns, palmed and swathed, their foreheads kissed,their grip unclenched, their fists and arms first blessed and, then, made much of"

The cellars of the 2our 1ourts were intact at the surrender, but the hockhad been agitated, the !eisling set astir" 2or years, the wines were sullied

with a leaden aftertaste, although the champagne had as full a throat as ever,and the spirits kept their heady confidence, for all the stockpiled bottleshad chimed with every hit, and the calculating scales above it allhad had the measure of nothing, or nothing if not smoke, and then wildfire"

* From Flight (2002) by kind permission of the author and The Gallery Press.