To And Fro In My Dreams I Go

as down the glen one Easter morn
to a city fair rode I
there armed lines of marching men
in squadrons passed me by
no pipe did hum no battle drum
did sound its loud tattoo
but the Angelus Bell
o'er the Liffey's swell
rang out in the foggy dew

Clancy Brothers: Foggy Dew / Drums Under The Window / Easter 1916

the bravest fell
and the Requiem bell
rang mournfully and clear
for those who died
that Eastertide
in the springing of the year
while the world did gaze
in deep amaze
at those fearless men
but few
who bore the fight
that freedom's light
might shine through
the foggy dew

back through the glen
I rode again
and my heart
with grief was sore
for I parted then
with valiant men
whom I never shall see more
but to and fro
in my dreams I go
and I kneel and pray for you
for slavery fled
o you rebel dead
when you fell
in the foggy dew

Arcady / Frances Black: The Bold Fenian Men

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed

and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse -
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.
--William Butler Yeats
from Easter 1916