Yeats Poem Sold at Auction
Posted on October 24, 2008
A rare first edition of William Butler Yeats' poem Easter 1916 was sold at auction for 7,100 Euros. there are only three copies that exist in the world. The very political poem concerned the Easter Rising, in which rebels seized government buildings for a week, but then surrendered to British forces.
Auction director David Britton said it received "exceptional interest". He said it appealed to enthusiasts both of Yeats and of Ireland's independence struggle from Britain.The poem concludes with the following famous lines:*****
The other two copies are in the National Library in Dublin and the British Library in London. The Dublin public initially condemned the rebels for bringing ruin to the capital, but many turned anti-British when the rebellion's commanders were executed within days. The poem reflects Yeats' own ambivalence to his countrymen's willingness to resort to violence, and insight into the greater bloodshed that lay ahead. One of the greatest poets of the 20th century, in 1923 Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
"MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born."