How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
All changed, changed utterly
A terrible beauty is born (15-16)
For most of his adult life, Yeats was happy to walk around Dublin and make meaningless small talk with the people around him. But all of that changed with the Easter Uprising of 1916. After that, everything was different. A lot of people were dead, yet Yeats can't help but feel that their historical sacrifice has a sort of terrible beauty to it.
Quote #2
He, too, has been changed in his turn (38)
Yeats wasn't all that big a fan of Major John MacBride. But he still has to admit that the dude has become a little bit immortal because of the role he played in the Easter Uprising. Then again, the phrase "changed utterly" might just mean that MacBride is dead. You never know with Yeats.
Quote #3
Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone (41-43)
For Yeats, there's something potentially immortal in the fact that the Irish fighters had a passion for freedom that never seemed to change over time. In this world, most things do change like the seasons. But the fighters' passion is immortal like a stone, unchanging and permanent.