What is it but nightfall? No, no, not night but death; Was it needless death after all? For England may keep faith For all that is done and said. We know their dream; enough To know they dreamed and are dead; And what if excess of love Bewildered them till they died?

Are Changed changed utterly A terrible beauty is born?

The quote "All changed, changed utterly. A terrible beauty is born" refers to the beauty of the Irish rebellion movement being started after terrible death and destruction at the hands of the British. The revolutionary movement began in earnest after the Easter 1916 uprising.

Is Easter 1916 an elegy?

In the end, “Easter, 1916” is less of a political poem than an elegy. We read it because it is, in the strange way poems are, alive. And by naming, it animates the dead in turn.