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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SIXTEEN DEAD MEN, by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS Poet's Biography
First Line: O but we talked at large before
Last Line: That converse bone to bone?
Alternate Author Name(s): Yeats, W. B.
Subject(s): Ireland - Rebellions
First Line: O but we talked at large before
Last Line: That converse bone to bone?
Alternate Author Name(s): Yeats, W. B.
Subject(s): Ireland - Rebellions
O BUT we talked at large before
The sixteen men were shot,
But who can talk of give and take,
What should be and what not
While those dead men are loitering there
To stir the boiling pot?
You say that we should still the land
Till Germany's overcome;
But who is there to argue that
Now Pearse is deaf and dumb?
And is their logic to outweigh
MacDonagh's bony thumb?
How could you dream they'd listen
That have an ear alone
For those new comrades they have found,
Lord Edward and Wolfe Tone,
Or meddle with our give and take
That converse bone to bone?
Other Poems of Interest...
FONTENOY by THOMAS OSBORNE DAVIS
DIRGE OF RORY O'MORE; 1642 by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE
THE IRISH RAPPAREES; A PEASANT BALLAD OF 1691 by CHARLES GAVAN DUFFY
MEMORY OF THE IRISH DEAD by JOHN KELLS INGRAM
FONTENOY, 1745: 1. BEFORE THE BATTLE: NIGHT by EMILY LAWLESS
FONTENOY, 1745: 2. AFTER THE BATTLE, EARLY DAWN, CLARE COAST by EMILY LAWLESS
REBEL MOTHER'S LULLABY by SHANE LESLIE
THE CROPPY BOY: (A BALLAD OF '98) by WILLIAM B. MCBURNEY
O, BREATHE NOT HIS NAME! by THOMAS MOORE
SHE IS FAR FROM THE LAND by THOMAS MOORE