They were born in the Lissadell House and into an aristocratic family
They were friends from his youth and
both sisters came from a rich family.
However they both gave this up to
fight against social injustice.
Eva Gore-Booth played a big role in the Suffragette movement
And was also part of the Irish Women's Rights
Movement
Eva was also a writer and took advice
from Yeats about her writing
Constance Markievicz, however, was an Irish Revolutionist
She was sentenced to death after Easter 1916 but
was then pardoned. Due to the public outcry, of her
being a woman. She was then imprisoned, as punishment.
Published in October 1927
Aging and Time
'The innocent and the beautiful
Have no enemy but time'
Repetitive
Empahsise on the beauty
they have lost to time
'When withered old and
skeleton-gaunt'
Eva did not achieve her "utopia", her illusive dream
world where everything is equal. Her image of
perfection remains unfulfilled because of the
destructive consequences of age .
'Arise and bid me strike a match
And strike another til time catch;
Should the conflagration climb.'
Striking a match - the last
straw
Conflagration - A
big fire. An act of
defiance? as it
destroys time.
Cleanses and
cleans?
'But a raving autumn shears Blossom
from summer's wreath'
Time has ruined the
two women.
"shears" is a violent act. Yeats does not see time
as a positive thing but a loss of power and very
destructive to our identities.
Idea of physical and metaphoric
decay
TIME DOES NOT STAND STILL
Beauty
'Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.'
Gazelles and kimonos both have
connotations of cultural beauty
Structure and Form
Irregular rhyme scheme.
Could be reflecting Yeats
emotions of discontent
In the form of an Elergy
Loss of physical and spiritual beauty
At first, rhyme scheme is abca
Links
EASTER 1916
AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN
Human morality
old age is an inevitable factor in humanity.
This is an aspect Yeats despises...
Politics
'The older is condemned to death,
Pardoned, drags out lonely years
Conspiring amongst the ignorant.'
Reference to the event of Easter 1916
and also Constance's association with
rebels
'An image of such politics'
Eva being an image of a
feminist
'All the folly of a fight
With a common wrong
or right.'
Rhyme between fight and right shows
the idiocy and childishness of their
fighting and rebellion
'Run till all the sages know.
We the great gazebo built,
They convicted us of guilt'
Sages- profoundly wise man
Gazebo- foolishness? or the
idea that Ireland is built onto
England/ is a smaller
structure by England's side.