his happened when he realized that the middle classes were behind the rebellion. He used the word ‘our’ in both poems, which also revealed a strong idea of unity.Yeats used different tones in these poems because they were written in three different stages of his career. “To Ireland in the Coming Times” was written in 1896 during the early stage of Yeats’s career. He created a sentimental and nostalgic mood when he wrote, “Ah, faeries, dancing under the moon, / A Druid land, a Druid tune!” (Finneran 50). In his mind, Ireland was an idyllic, enchanted place. By mentioning druids, he was honouring Ireland’s past. Elsewhere, he said, “Nor be I any less of them, / Because the red-rose-bordered hem” (Finneran 50). Yeats was upset about the war in Ireland and the death of the nationalists. In this poem, he thought that Ireland was a glorious and romantic land. However, after the war of Irish Independence, the beauty was stained with blood. Yeats’s task was to recapture Ireland’s glory.“September 1913” was written in the year 1913 during the war of Irish Independence. He changed his mood from sentimental to resentful and pessimistic, since the Roman Catholic middle classes had done nothing to protect their country. Yeats resented their attitudes towards the country, which made Yeats resent them as a whole. He expressed his thought through this poem and by leaving Ireland to show his dissatisfaction.In 1916, Yeats returned to Ireland because he acknowledged that the middle classes had Irish honour. In previous poems, Yeats mentioned the names of freedom fighters in order to define the idea of Irish honour. In “Easter 1916,” Yeats named the middle classes heroes who fought in the Easter rebellion. By doing so, he symbolically included them in Irish history. The poem was a retraction of “September.” (Abrams 1946) The mood in th...
