An Appreciation of “Easter 1916”.- Poem-William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats is one of the prominent British Poets of the twentieth century.An Irish poet, he was closely associated with the Irish Literary Revival and the Abbey theatre. But unlike many other Irish writers like Sean O’Casey, Yeats was not revolutionary in his attitudes. He was not quite persuaded to believe that all that bloodshed was wise and he did not think of patriotism as a very good or suitable subject of poetry. On 24th of April, 1916 an Easter Sunday the Irish revolutionary leaders occupies the General Post Office in Dublin and proclaimed Ireland a free republic. However their forces were defeated by the British army within a week. Sixteen of the leaders were court-martialed and shot dead . Although militarily, the uprising was insignificant, it captured the imagination of the Irish People.

The literal meaning of the poem is easy enough to grasp. The poem possesses a remarkable lyrical intensity. It has no metaphysical level and the poet is seen devoted to the expression of his vision of abstract reality .Even though Yeats had much in opposite with many of the actions of the revolutionaries, this uprising moved him deeply and this poem is a sincere ambiguous tribute to the leaders of the movement. The poem begins with a note of self-criticism for Yeats had been guilty of complacent detachment from his fellow Irishmen. But now he recognizes that through the events of Easter week, his fellow countrymen have achieved admirable heroic intensity; they have achieved a permanence, he recognizes and confirms by including them in his song. He contrasts “the polite meaningless words’ which constituted the “Casual Comedy” of pre-revolutionary Ireland. The Ireland had been mortally warned with the tragic “terrible beauty” that was born of the Easter rising.

Yeats goes onto catalogue the men and women whom he had previously undervalued; Constance Markiewing acknowledged to be the loveliest girl in country Sligo and an expert rider and hunter, whose voice had grown shrill in political argument: Padriac, the poet and founder of St. Edna’s school who was shot by the British; ThomasMacdonagh, a poet and critic who shared Pearse’s fate; and John Macbride who had hurt Yeats by marrying Maud Gonne, the great love of his life. Yeats bitterly refers to him as a drunken vainglorious lout; but all of them even Macbride have been changed utterly and have become part of the terrible beauty of Ireland after uprising.

However after paying tributes to these leaders, Yeats, the poet of mixed emotions, goes on to ruminate on the nature of revolutionary heroism. These people were obsessed with one purpose alone – the liberation of Ireland. This obsession made them unchanging objects in a world of change and flux. Rock like in this unchanging determination, they also become stone like impeding the flow of life. Yeats brings in images of change-horses splashing in water, moor hens calling to moor cocks, the clouds that cast shadows on the stream but the stone in the middle of the stream remains unchanging. The revolutionaries although heroic are also like the unfeeling hard stones in the river of life. A prolonged sacrifice can harden the heart. At what stage can we say that the sacrifice already made will suffice. Yeats opines that it is not for the human beings to decide this but for the God. All we can do is mutter the names of those who have sacrificed hemselves just as a mother utters a child’s name when the child is lulled to sleep.

But then Yeats realizes that these people are not asleep but dead and he wonders if he sacrifices of the martyrs are necessary. It was possible that England might keep her romise and give freedom to Ireland but for the Irish, it was enough to know that they

dreamed of the liberation of their country and died because of their dreams. Yeats

celebrates in his poetry, the heroic intensity that Macdonagh and MacBride and Conneley

and Pierse had achieved. The poem is an ambivalent celebration of the heroism of Easter, 916. The doubts and misgivings in the poem are characteristically Yeatism. e is, in a

sense, the poet of mixed feelings. It is this uncertainty that gives the poem its intension and

complexity and makes it one of the finest of all political poems.

Meaning of Politics in Comparative Politics

Samuel E Finer says that Politics is a “continuous, time less, ever changing and universal activity having its key manifestations in the making of a decision to face and solve a predicament”. It flows from a special kind of activity, a form of human behavior. It refers to the making or taking of a decision in which some political action is involved. David Easton treats it is an action for the “authoritative allocation of values”. Harold Laswell, and Robert. A. Dahl describe it, ‘as a special case in exercise of power’. But Jean Blondal gives emphasis on the ‘decision making Process.’

In comparative politics ‘politics has three connotations, Political activity, Political process, and Power. Political activity consists of the efforts by which conditions of conflicts are created and resolved in a way pertaining to the interest of the people, as far as possible, who play their part in the struggle for power. 

The tension and conflicts are reduced and resolved through the operation of some permanent mechanism of tension reduction. If Politics is the authoritative allocation of’ ‘value’ it is bound to arise some measure of conflicts between ‘Values’ as desired by the people and ‘values’ as held by authorities. This leads to conflicts, that demand their solution and what leads to efforts in this regard constitute political activity. Political process is an extension of political activity. It includes the activities of all agencies that have their role in the decision-making process. It also includes even ‘non-state agencies’.A study of the way of groups and associations operate shows that they are not free from the trends of struggle for power; they have their ‘internal governments’ to deal with their internal conflicts and tensions. What is particularly important for our purpose is that these ‘non-state’

associations influence the government of the country for the sake of protecting and promoting

their specific interests.

 Thus, there occurs a very sharp process of interaction between the groups inter se and between the groups and the government of the country. Participate in policy formation  by the government or become the government, is the political process. Finally, the scope of comparative politics includes the subject of political power. The term ‘power’ has been defined by different writers in different ways. For instance, while Carl J Friedrich describes it as ‘a certain kind of human relationship’. Tawney regards it as the capacity of an individual, or a group of individuals to modify the conduct of other individuals or groups in the manner which he desires. Referring to the role of power in the matter of decision-making, 

Lasswell says: “The making of decision is an inter personal process: the policies which other persons are to pursue are what is decided upon. Power as participation in the making of decisions is an interpersonal relation. Politics thus connotes a special case in the exercise of power an exercise of power – an exercise in the attempt to change the conduct of others in one’s own

direction”

Comparative politics: Different perspectives

Comparative Politics is a study in the direction of expanding horizon of Political Science. It is a study of Political realities by means of new techniques and approaches. Itis not a study of government, but governments with the taking of decisions in all levels. Formally, comparative study has been part of what is called the study of Foreign governments, in which the governmental structures and the formal organisations of state constitutions were treated in a discipline, historical or legalistic, manner, Primary emphasis has been placed on written documents like constitution and legal principles for the allocation of Political Power.

Comparative politics as discipline has vital importance because a great deal of experimentation is now going on with new techniques, new definitions, new research tools. The main reason for the intellectual development, perhaps, because of the wide spread feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction with the traditional descriptive approach to the subject. In the traditional view point, the term comparative politics, refers to a subject matter, a field of specialty within the academic study of politics (that, is, political science), and a method of an approach to the study of politics. The subject matter of comparative politics is the domestic politics of countries or peoples. (Mark Kesselman,Joel Krieger) Comparative Politics is the study of political systems ,not as isolated cases but through generalisation and comparisons

(G.A.Almond ,G.B Powell).

R.K Roberts classified the historical development of the subject in to three phases Unsophisticated, Sophisticated, and increasingly Sophisticated. In the first phase includes the contribution made by Aristotle, Machiavelli, Bryce and Weber to the study of politic. These writers simply utilised the comparative method for the primary purpose of the better understanding the working of political organisations. In the second phase some important writers like Samuel. H. Beer, M. Hass, Bernard Ulam and Roy. C Macrids made their contribution to the development of comparative politics. They used various strategies of comparison such as area studies, Configurative approach, Institutional comparison, a problem-based orientation, and with various methodological problems. In the third phase the contribution of David Easton, Gabriel Almond, James Coleman, Karl Deutsch, G. B Powell, Robert A. Dahl may be included in this phase. These writers made use of interrelated set of concepts for the sake of presenting their contribution on the basis of comparative analysis. They used some specialized vocabulary in their own ways. David Easton used inputs, out puts, demand, feedback; Almond offers a set of input output function; Karl Deutsch used a cybernetic language etc.

In new comparative politics, in the 1970s and 1980s, comparative politics became defined largely by ideological and methodological debates. Left and Right accused each other of bias and distortions while advocates of qualitative and quantitative methods argued over how to structure and use research. Yet even as these debates raged among scholars, new global debates taking shape that would shake the foundations of comparative politics once again. The first major development was rapid industrialization in Asia. The second major event was the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. A third and related development was what has come to be known as the “third wave, of democracy (Patric O Neil)

GERALD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844 - 1889- INTRODUCTION

Hopkins is victorian by birth, but in his poetic sensibility and technique he is essentially a modern.

Born in stratford, Essex 28 July 1844, Hopkins was educated at Highgate school; and Balliolcollege, Oxford. He was particularly interested in classics . The Oxford Movement affected him.

He joined the roman catholic Church in 1966. ln Mar 1866 he took three vital decision to become a priest, to become a Jesuit and to burn his poems. He worked A The Chair Of Greek at University College, Dublin from 1884 till his death in 1889. Right from his young age he proved his mettle as a poet. But from his conversion in 1866, he gave up poetry. However he came back to poetry by writing the celebratdd " wreck of the Dentscland" (Winter 1875-76) Probably he felt that his poetic talent must be used to glorify God. However, his poems came to light only when Robert Bridges published them under the title, Poems of Gerald Hopkins, now first published with notes in 1918

Quickly these poems were noted for their technical virtuosity and innovative qualities. His vocabulary, diction and rhythm are specially praise worthy. They have the unmistakable stamp of originality and boldness. Hopkins in the latter part of his career was probably influenced by Duns Scotus's (Scottish Frunciscan philosopher) concept of thinness' (haecceitas) an the idea of whatness' (quidditas) stressed by Thomas Aquinas Hopkins in hii poems tries to comprehend the inward pattern of an object. He termed in 'inscap' perhaps he brought about great changes by making the language very near to the spoken world. Also he employed the traditionalAnglo-Saxon Rhythm; sprung rhythm. ln "The wreck of the Dentschland' he used sprung rhythm from the first time. ln sprung Rhythm too as in conventional verse has reet. Every foot has at least one strongly stressed syllable. Hopkins himself explains it as follows. (But it consists) "On scanning by accents or stress alone, Without any account of the number of the number of syllables, so that a foot may be on strong syllable or it may be many light and one slrong' (Letter to R.W.Dixon). ln another letter to Robert Bridges Hopkins makes it clear that'sprung rhythm' is perhaps that musl natural, rhetoric and emphatic of all possible rhythms. Along with lhe stressed syllable oriented scanning, the poet also makes use of many cther musical devices compound adieclives, end rhyme, half rhynre, word play, assonance, alliteration etc.

Hopkins' poetic career shows three distinct periods; 1) The early romantic period.2) the middle period beginning with "The Wreck..." highly experimental. 3) The period of the sonnets of desolation;

intense in emotion but quite sever and austere in language.