Contrary to the optimistic nature of the title, “Easter 1916”, Yeats's poem is about death, sacrifice, rebellion and politics. It is not often that Yeats addresses the topic of the Irish independence movement. The only other expressly political poem he wrote was “September 1913,” which also dealt with the Irish Independence Movement. Therefore, the topical rarity of the poem, written by an almost politically disinclined Yeats, simply demands careful analysis from the reader. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, Yeats uses iambic tetrameter and iambic quarter in the poem. The rhyme scheme of the poem also alternates rhyming lines in ABAB form. Yeats varies the structure to emphasize the importance of the poem's content and meaning. In stanza 1, Yeats uses a blend of iambic tetrameter and trimeter rhythm to bring out the subtle discordance in the Irish population. The lines: "I met them at the end of the day / Coming with lively faces / From the counter or desk among the gray / Eighteenth-century houses" (lines 1–4) are written in steady iambic tetrameter like most stanzas. However, some lines that Yeats subtly slips in between, such as "Or polite without Meaning Words" or "To please a Companion" and "All Changed, Changely Fully:", are in trimetric rhythm, breaking the consistency of the verse and slowing it down. somewhat, making the reader aware of the underlying discordance in the supposed normality and mundane nature of life described by Yeats. This, perhaps, is Yeats's way of "foreshadowing" the rebellion he speaks of in the next stanzas, thus preparing the reader for a turn of events. Secondly, the most important tool used by Yeats in the poem is the change of tone. In the first stanza, the character adopts a contemptuous, almost mocking tone towards those involved in the cause of Independence. When the person states that "I passed with a nod of the head / or polite and meaningless words", he implies that, in reality, he does not care much about these people who are an insignificant part of his life. In stanza 2, his tone becomes almost mocking when he says, “That woman's days were spent / In ignorant benevolence / Her nights in arguments / Till her voice became shrill.” In those lines, he describes Countess Constance Georgina Markiewicz, a prominent Irish nationalist whom he appears to loathe and deride as "ignorant" and "shrill." His distance from the cause is made evident by the dominant tone in the first two stanzas, but is subject to change in the subsequent stanzas. In the next stanzas, the character's tone changes. It is a fairly obvious shift from disdain and ridicule to empathy for those involved in the cause of Independence. The poem states, "Was it a useless death after all?", highlighting the change in the character's opinion. He now seems empathetic to those who gave their lives for the cause. Furthermore, he goes on to talk about the heroes who died in the war – “MacDonagh and MacBride / And Connolly and Pearse” – who were also nationalists who died in the rebellion. Talking about them specifically glorifies them in the reader's eyes, making them see a clear change in tone from stanzas one and two. The character now identifies with the nationalists and perhaps has even integrated himself with the cause of freedom. Thirdly, the refrain used also adds another dimension of meaning to the poem. After starting the poem with a very calm and gentle beginning, Yeats suddenly changes the almost calming nature of the poem to a dramatic one in lines 15 and 16: "Everything has changed, has changed.