Easter, 1916

In the second stanza, Yeats describes the rebels as “Hearts with one purpose alone / Through summer and winter seem / Enchanted to a stone / To trouble the living stream” (Lines 41-43). Yeats chose the image of a stone to emphasize the solidity and determination of the leaders of the Rising. While he feels ambivalent about their pure devotion, he nevertheless has admiration and respect for their determination and commitment to the cause. Yeats is uncertain that this stone-like commitment can function within the world, though, which is naturally full of change and movement. His use of the verb “trouble” (Line 44) in reference to the stone in the water suggests his discomfort with the rebels’ tactics, noting that they might be out of alignment with the natural order of things. At the end of the stanza, he doubles down on this contrast, describing the moving, changing world in detail before finishing with, “The stone’s in the midst of all” (Line 56). The stone is prominent and strong but might not fit in with the rest of the landscape. In the final stanza, the stone becomes something more detrimental, as Yeats claims, “Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart” (Line 57), suggesting that the rebels’ actions might have hardened them.