“Was it for this the wild geese spread
The grey wing upon every tide;
For this that all that blood was shed,
For this Edward Fitzgerald died,
And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone,
All that delirium of the brave?
Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.”

—  W.B. Yeats

September 1913 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1576/, st. 3
Responsibilities (1914)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Was it for this the wild geese spread The grey wing upon every tide; For this that all that blood was shed, For this…" by W.B. Yeats?
W.B. Yeats photo
W.B. Yeats 255
Irish poet and playwright 1865–1939

Related quotes

Patrick Pearse photo
Thomas Carlyle photo

“All Heaven, all Pandemonium are his escort. The stars keen-glancing, from the Immensities, send tidings to him; the graves, silent with their dead, from the Eternities. Deep calls for him unto Deep.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1840s, Past and Present (1843)
Context: Not a May-game is this man's life; but a battle and a march, a warfare with principalities and powers. No idle promenade through fragrant orange-groves and green flowery spaces, waited on by the choral Muses and the rosy Hours: it is a stern pilgrimage through burning sandy solitudes, through regions of thick-ribbed ice. He walks among men; loves men, with inexpressible soft pity,—as they cannot love him: but his soul dwells in solitude, in the uttermost parts of Creation. In green oases by the palm-tree wells, he rests a space; but anon he has to journey forward, escorted by the Terrors and the Splendours, the Archdemons and Archangels. All Heaven, all Pandemonium are his escort. The stars keen-glancing, from the Immensities, send tidings to him; the graves, silent with their dead, from the Eternities. Deep calls for him unto Deep.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“I wish I was dead,
And lay deep in the grave.
I've a pain in my head,
I wish I was dead.
In a coffin of lead—
With the Wise and the Brave—
I wish I was dead,
And lay deep in the grave.”

Maurice Baring (1874–1945) English writer

"Jean Francois", from Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and Sketches.

“Far from being pro-Unionist, I do not want Ireland to be part of the United Kingdom. But, as a Wolfe Tone republican, I feel I have a firm duty to defend the rights of Protestants and Dissenters to do their own thing until such time as we can persuade them their future is in a federal Ireland.”

Eoghan Harris (1943) Irish journalist

Bloody Sunday, every bloody Sunday, Eoghan Harris, Irish Independent http://www.independent.ie/unsorted/features/bloody-sunday-every-bloody-sunday-469764.html,

Will Rogers photo
Simonides of Ceos photo

“Here lies Megistias, who died
When the Medes crossed Spercheius' tide.
A great seer, yet he scorned to save
Himself, and shared the Spartans' grave.”

Simonides of Ceos (-556–-468 BC) Ancient Greek musician and poet

Epitaph of the Spartan Diviner, Megistias, at Thermopylae

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman photo

“As we have already shed blood, we are ready to shed more blood!”

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920–1975) Bengali revolutionary, founder ("father") of Bangladesh

Source: Quote, This time the struggle is for our freedom (1971)

Walter de la Mare photo

“A face peered. All the grey night
In chaos of vacancy shone;
Nought but vast sorrow was there—
The sweet cheat gone.”

Walter de la Mare (1873–1956) English poet and fiction writer

The Ghost.

Related topics