September 1913 (Leaving Cert English): Revision Notes
September 1913
Overview and summary
"September 1913" stands as one of William Butler Yeats' most powerful expressions of disappointment with modern Ireland. Written as a sorrowful elegy, the poem mourns the death of "Romantic Ireland" and the noble nationalist heroes that Yeats deeply admired. Through this work, Yeats presents his perception of how Irish society had deteriorated by 1913, becoming consumed with material concerns rather than the higher ideals that once inspired great sacrifice.
The poem captures Yeats' frustration with his contemporaries, whom he viewed as having lost touch with Ireland's heroic past. He believed that the strength and nobility of his country had been drained away, leaving behind a population focused inward on petty concerns rather than the greater good. While Yeats expresses despair about this transformation, acknowledging that the heroic era has passed forever, the poem itself represents his continued commitment to preserving the memory of those noble ideals.
The poem was written during a period of intense political and cultural debate in Ireland, just before the Easter Rising of 1916. Yeats was responding to what he saw as the middle class's increasing focus on material gain rather than nationalist ideals.
Structure and poetic form
The poem follows a carefully constructed four-stanza format, with each stanza containing eight lines known as octaves. This formal structure provides a steady, measured rhythm that enhances the poem's elegiac quality. Yeats employs a consistent rhyme scheme of ABABCDCD throughout each stanza, creating a pattern that shifts the end sounds as the stanza progresses.
What makes the rhyme scheme particularly effective is how Yeats incorporates additional repetition within this framework. The final four lines of each stanza utilise matching full-rhymes and half-rhymes. For instance, in the opening stanza, we find the half-rhymes "bone" and "gone" paired with the full rhymes "save" and "grave." This pattern repeats in the second stanza with "spun" and "gone" followed by "save" and "grave," creating a haunting musical quality that reinforces the poem's themes.
The consistent ABABCDCD rhyme scheme and repeated refrain create a funeral-like atmosphere that is essential to understanding the poem's elegiac tone. This structural choice reinforces the theme of death and mourning throughout.
Detailed stanza analysis
Stanza one - The accusation
The opening stanza immediately establishes the speaker's harsh judgement of contemporary Irish society. Yeats addresses his fellow countrymen directly, accusing them of greed and spiritual emptiness. The phrase "fumble in a greasy till" creates a vivid picture of people obsessively counting small amounts of money, while their prayers have become merely "shivering prayer" - cold, mechanical, and devoid of genuine feeling.
The metaphor of drying "the marrow from the bone" suggests that this generation has drained Ireland of its essential life force and vitality. By addressing readers as "You," Yeats implicates not just his immediate audience but all those who have contributed to this spiritual decline. The stanza concludes with its famous refrain, declaring that "Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, / It's with O'Leary in the grave."
John O'Leary (1830-1907) was a prominent Irish nationalist and mentor to Yeats. O'Leary represented the kind of principled nationalism that Yeats admired - he advocated for Irish independence through non-violent means and believed in separating religious and political authority. His placement in the grave symbolises the death of such noble political idealism.
Stanza two - The heroic contrast
The second stanza shifts focus to the heroes of Ireland's past, describing them as fundamentally different from the current generation. These were figures whose "names that stilled your childish play" - suggesting their stories were so compelling and inspiring that children would stop their games to listen with awe and reverence.
Yeats emphasises how these heroes "have gone about the world like wind", indicating their global influence and the way their ideals spread far beyond Ireland's borders. Yet ironically, they "had little time [...] to pray", contrasting their active commitment to political change with the current generation's hollow religious observance. The phrase "For whom the hangman's rope was spun" starkly reminds readers of the ultimate sacrifice these heroes made for their beliefs.
The contrast between past heroes who "had little time to pray" and the contemporary generation's "shivering prayer" highlights Yeats' belief that true dedication to Ireland's cause requires action rather than empty religious observance.
The stanza concludes with the repeated refrain, reinforcing the sense that this heroic age has permanently passed away.
Stanza three - Questioning the sacrifice
Beginning with a rhetorical question, the third stanza asks whether all the suffering and bloodshed of the past was worthwhile given the current state of Ireland. Yeats specifically mentions Edward Fitzgerald, Robert Emmet, and Wolfe Tone - all key figures in Irish nationalist movements who died fighting for independence.
The "wild geese" mentioned here refers to Irish soldiers who left Ireland to serve in foreign armies, representing another form of sacrifice for the homeland. The phrase "all that delirium of the brave" suggests that the passionate commitment of these historical figures now seems almost like madness when viewed by the prosaic standards of contemporary Irish society.
The "wild geese" is a crucial historical reference to the Flight of the Wild Geese (1691), when Irish Jacobite soldiers left Ireland to serve in continental European armies after the Treaty of Limerick. This symbol represents both exile and continued dedication to Ireland despite physical separation.
Again, the refrain emphasises that this era of heroic sacrifice has ended permanently, buried with O'Leary and others like him.
Stanza four - Final resignation
The concluding stanza expresses a complex mixture of resignation and implicit challenge. Yeats acknowledges that attempting to revive the spirit of past heroes would be futile - "Yet could we turn the years again" - recognising that too much has changed since their time.
The reference to "some woman's yellow hair / Has maddened every mother's son" suggests that the current generation is distracted by romantic and material pleasures rather than higher ideals. This connects to the broader theme of how modern Ireland has lost its focus on noble causes.
However, the final lines reveal an important paradox. While Yeats claims that these heroes' goals could never be achieved and that "They weighed so lightly what they gave", his very act of writing this poem contradicts his stated resignation. By commemorating these figures and continuing to promote their ideals through his poetry, Yeats demonstrates that the Romantic tradition is not entirely dead.
This final stanza contains an important irony: while Yeats claims the heroic tradition is dead, his act of writing this commemorative poem actually continues that tradition. The poem becomes both elegy and call to action.
Major themes
Money, religion, and political complacency
One of the poem's central concerns is how contemporary Irish society has become dominated by material concerns and hollow religious practice. Yeats presents a scathing portrait of a middle class consumed with accumulating small amounts of money and performing religious duties without genuine spiritual engagement. The "halfpence" and "pence" they count in their "greasy till" represents their petty materialistic focus, while their "shivering prayer" reveals religious observance that lacks warmth, passion, or authentic faith.
This focus on minor financial gains and superficial piety contrasts sharply with the revolutionary commitment of past heroes. Where figures like Edward Fitzgerald, Robert Emmet, and Wolfe Tone dedicated their lives to the dream of Irish independence, often facing execution for their beliefs, the contemporary generation seems unwilling to sacrifice anything significant for higher ideals. Their commitment extends only to saving small amounts of money and fulfilling basic religious obligations.
Yeats suggests that this materialistic focus has made the middle class both "unable and unwilling to bring about the cultural and political revolution" that Ireland needs. Their complacency has contributed to the death of the revolutionary spirit that once characterised Irish nationalism.
The loss of idealism and romantic Ireland
The poem's refrain - "Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, / It's with O'Leary in the grave" - captures Yeats' belief that Ireland has lost its capacity for the kind of idealistic nationalism that once inspired great sacrifice. The "Romantic Ireland" Yeats mourns was characterised by a willingness to pursue noble goals regardless of practical considerations or personal cost.
This lost Ireland was embodied by figures who "were of a different kind" - people motivated by principles rather than self-interest. These revolutionaries travelled "around the world" fighting for their ideals, understanding that they would likely be killed but remaining "totally committed to the cause" regardless. They demonstrated selflessness and willingness to sacrifice that Yeats finds completely absent in his contemporary Ireland.
The speaker argues that modern Irish people would not only fail to appreciate such dedication but would actively "scorn and dismiss those men for their commitment to the cause". The intense patriotism that once seemed natural now appears to contemporary observers as "delirium" - a form of madness rather than admirable dedication.
Yet the poem itself represents a form of resistance to this loss. By writing about these heroes and keeping their memory alive, Yeats continues the Romantic tradition even while mourning its apparent death. The poem challenges readers to consider whether they might rise above their complacency and prove the speaker wrong about Ireland's spiritual death.
Key poetic techniques
Refrain and repetition
The most prominent technique in "September 1913" is the repeated refrain "Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, / It's with O'Leary in the grave." This refrain appears at the end of every stanza, creating a mournful, funeral-like rhythm that reinforces the poem's elegiac tone. Each repetition drives home the speaker's conviction that Ireland's heroic age has permanently ended, while also ensuring that readers cannot forget this central claim.
The refrain functions as an anchor for each stanza, providing stability while also creating a sense of finality and despair that permeates the entire poem.
Alliteration
Yeats uses alliteration strategically to enhance the poem's musical quality and emphasise key themes. The phrase "Was it for this the wild geese spread" uses the repetition of the 's' sound to create a sense of movement and connection to the theme of Irish sacrifice. Similarly, "For whom the hangman's rope was spun" employs 'h' sounds to emphasise the harsh reality of Ireland's historical suffering.
These alliterative patterns help create memorable phrases while drawing attention to the poem's most important images and ideas.
Contrast and juxtaposition
Throughout the poem, Yeats creates powerful contrasts between the materialistic present and the idealistic past. The image of people "Fumbling in a greasy till" represents the selfish, small-minded concerns of contemporary Ireland, while "They weighed so lightly what they gave" celebrates the past heroes' willingness to sacrifice everything for their beliefs.
This technique of juxtaposition allows Yeats to highlight the moral distance between different generations of Irish people, making his criticism of contemporary society more pointed and effective.
Symbolism
Key symbols enhance the poem's emotional impact and thematic depth. "The wild geese" symbolises Irish soldiers who served abroad, representing both exile and continued dedication to Ireland despite physical separation. "The hangman's rope" symbolises the martyrdom that many Irish patriots accepted as the price of their resistance to British rule.
These symbols connect the poem to broader patterns of Irish history and culture, giving individual references universal significance.
Rhetorical questions
Yeats employs rhetorical questions to express his disbelief and disappointment: "Was it for this the wild geese spread / The grey wing upon every tide?" These questions don't seek answers but rather express the speaker's conviction that current Ireland has betrayed the sacrifices of previous generations.
The rhetorical questions create a sense of dialogue with the reader while emphasising the speaker's emotional investment in the topic.
Key Points to Remember:
- "September 1913" is an elegy mourning the death of idealistic Irish nationalism and criticising contemporary materialism and complacency
- The poem's structure (four octaves with ABABCDCD rhyme scheme) and repeated refrain create a funeral-like, mournful atmosphere
- Yeats contrasts the selfless sacrifice of past heroes (O'Leary, Fitzgerald, Emmet, Tone) with the petty concerns of his contemporaries
- Key themes include the conflict between materialism and idealism, the loss of "Romantic Ireland," and political complacency
- The poem uses multiple techniques (alliteration, symbolism, rhetorical questions, contrast) to create emotional impact and reinforce its critique of modern Irish society