In the poem, Yeats explores his fascination with the metamorphosis of his fellow Irishmen involved in the fight for independence from England. This excerpt demonstrates the contrast between ordinary lives and the fire within of working for a cause. The poem continues for 64 lines, also exploring the prices that the surviving activists paid for their attempt to win Irish independence. Some of the activists profiled in this book have lost a child or spent time and money or lost their marriage or simply experienced strained relationships with friends and family because of their involvement. For me, the first images of the poem, of ordinary people carrying out their daily routines, coming from work, stopping in a pub, etc.
Most people still have to earn a living and have daily responsibilities to their family.
If they become inflamed by a cause, it's hard, very hard, to be true to both their ordinary lives and their new, extraordinary lives. Some of the people I have chosen for this book began as housewives, with dinner to put on the table, children to care for and no jobs outside the house. Lois Gibbs , for example, was motivated by an unusually high incidence of liver damage, asthma, urinary tract disorders, immune system dysfunctions and rare blood diseases in her community at Love Canal in upstate New York and worked to do something about it. Her fight to bring the nation's attention to the problem and to win relocation for the residents there cost her marriage. Similarly, Ellen Janke, who ran unsuccessfully in 1995 for the North Penn School Board in the suburbs of Philadelphia gained a voice and newfound power, but lost her marriage.