The speaker
The speaker is someone who lives in Dublin and knows several of the participants in the Easter Rising. He is closely associated with the poet Yeats himself, as he says that one of the rebels has “done most bitter wrong/To some who are near my heart.” The speaker has an ambivalent attitude towards the Easter Rising. He sees it as both a form of “beauty” and as “terrible.”
Constance Gore-Booth Markievicz
Markievicz was a countess, suffragette, and Irish nationalist. She was involved in the rebellion but had her death sentence commuted. She is not named in the poem but referred to as “that woman.” According to the depiction of her here, she was sweet and beautiful but became harsh and “shrill” due to argument and conflict.
Patrick Pearse
Pearse was an educator and poet who was also involved in the Easter Rising and later executed by the British army. The poem mentions him as “this man” in the second stanza and by name in the fourth.
Thomas MacDonagh
MacDonagh was also a participant in the Easter Rising who was later executed. He is described in the poem as a “daring,” “sweet” helper to Pearse, and mentioned by name in the last stanza.
John MacBridge
MacBridge was a major in the Irish Republican Army who was also executed in 1916. He was married to Maud Gonne, the love of Yeats’s life. MacBridge abused Gonne and is described in the poem as a “drunken, vainglorious lout.” He is mentioned by name in the last stanza.
James Connolly
Connolly was a socialist who led the Irish Citizen Army Volunteers during the Easter Rebellion. He is mentioned by name in the poem’s last stanza.
