Easter, 1916

Yeats relies heavily on repetition throughout “Easter, 1916,” most notably with the refrain, “A terrible beauty is born” (Lines 16, 40, 80), which Yeats places at the end of the first, second, and fourth stanzas. Calling back to this line multiple times emphasizes the thematic concerns of the poem, including Yeats’ ambivalent feelings about the actions of the rebels he memorializes. Over and over, the poem treads ground as Yeats ruminates over the value of the loss of life in context with the martyrs’ own values of liberty and nationalism. By repeating the phrase multiple times, Yeats acknowledges the humanity and beauty of the dead and suggests that their martyrdom is neither pure nor without negatives.

Yeats repeats other phrases throughout the poem, like “polite meaningless words” (Lines 6, 8) in the first stanza, and “minute by minute” (Lines 48, 50, 55) in the third. This repetition both builds on and intensifies the pacing of the poem, underscoring the speaker’s perseverating thought process as he tries to make sense of the violence and death of his acquaintances.