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In Easter 1916, William Butler Yeats describes the ordinary Irish people finally uniting and affirming national identity through rebellion to assert Ireland’s coming of age. Yeats expresses his grief and horror regarding the events of Easter week 1916, and the unity of the Irish people working towards the goal of Irish independence from England. In the first stanza, Yeats implies to Ireland’s stagnant history illustrated by disillusioned civilians who all live together in the same country and share a common identity. But through the events of 1916, Yeats asserts that they have “All changed utterly”(line 15). The final line of the stanza, “A terrible beauty is born”(line 16), is repeated throughout the poem and is the poem’s main theme. William Yeats describes the people of Ireland working together towards the goal of independence; even though there will be blo