Easter, 1916 Immortality Quotes

Things in this world tend to change minute by minute. We get up, we move around, and life goes on. But the people who've died in the Easter Uprising can't change anymore because they're dead. On the other hand, there's almost something immortal about the fact that there's no more changes left for them to undergo.

For the past few lines, Yeats has been talking about how "night" has come over the people who fought in the Easter Uprising. Now usually, most poets would be content to leave the metaphorical connection between night and death up to us. But not Yeats. Here, he decides to make it clear that he's talking about death. As in dead. No immortality, despite what he's said in other places.

At the end of the poem, Yeats decides that after all of his hemming and hawing, he thinks that the people who've died in the Easter Uprising have achieved some sort of immortality. After all, these people are part of Irish history, and whether people know their names or not, they'll always be part of what's going on whenever green is worn. That's because green is the color of Ireland and these people died for the cause of Irish freedom.