Easter Week 1916. Patriotic commemorative poem of the Rising. Small broadside poem.

Single leaf, printed on one side in a single column beneath a drop-head title and rule. [Dublin], n.d. [c.1916-1917]. Light browning and scattered foxing, very good for such fragile item. 123 x 195mm. Scarce.
Opening line: “Who fears to speak of Easter Week, / Who dares its fate deplore?” Concludes with appeals to the martyrs, naming “Pearse and Plunkett’s graves.”
Issued in the immediate aftermath of the 1916 Rising, this poem consciously echoes John Kells Ingram’s famous commemorative lyric “Who Fears to Speak of ‘98?”, refashioning its refrain for the new Republican ideal. Its imagery, “the red-gold flame of Erin’s name,” the clang of steel, and voices rising “from their cell”, captures the tone of Irish nationalism.

[CAT 162]