Padraig Pearse Poetry

Padraig Pearse was born in 1879 in Dublin his father was a

stonemason and his family was in the middle class. He involved
in the Gaelic revival very soon at the age of 16 he joined the
Gaelic League and at the age of 23, he became editor of its
newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis which means The Sword of
Light. In 1900 Pearse was awarded a BA in Modern Languages.
He started his own bilingual school, St. Enda's School in
Cullenswood House in Ranelagh in County Dublin.
In December 1913 Bulmer Hobson swore Pearse into the secret
Irish Republican Brotherhood. Pearse was chosen by the leading
IRB man Tom Clarke for the Rising. When the Easter Rising
eventually began on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, it was
Pearse who read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic from
outside the General Post Office, the headquarters of the rising.
After six days of fighting, heavy civilian casualties and great
destruction of property, Pearse issued the order to surrender.
Pearse and fourteen other leaders, including his brother Willie,
were court-martialed and executed by firing squad. Thomas
Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh and Pearse himself were the first of
the rebels to be executed, on the morning of 3 May 1916.
Pearse was 36 years old at the time of his death. Maxwell
suppressed a letter from Pearse to his mother before his death
and also buried the bodies of the executed in a mass grave, his
body was never found.
Padraig Pearse was an aspiring poet wrote several poems and
short stories, is best-known English poems include "The
Mother", "The Fool" and "The Wayfarer". His short stories in
Irish include Eoghainn na nan ("Eoineen of the Birds"),
osagn ("Little Jesus"), An Gada ("The Thief"), Na Bithre ("The
Roads"), and An Bhean Chaointe ("The Keening Woman").
Except all his poems hi was also strongly associated with the
song "Or S do Bheatha Bhaile", for which he composed
additional lyrics.
The Mother tells a story of a mother who had two sons but
they lost their lifes in battle. We can see the grief of the mother
and the sorrow for example in the line The little names that

were familiar once, Round my dead hearth Even though she is

suffering to due to the lose she is very proud of them, the fact
they went out and fought for their country we can see this in
the line My sons were faithful, and they fought. It is also
fascinating that Pearse wrote the poem, predicting the future
because he himself and his brother were executed after the
rising. The poem shows Pearses huge nationalism and belief in
freedom.
The Wayfarer is another poem written by Padraig Pearse, it
tells the story of a wayfarer wandering around Ireland
describing all of the beauties he had seen in his life for example
the line To see a leaping squirrel in a tree, Or a red lady-bird
upon a stalk, he also mentions children playing in the streets.
In the final part of the poem Pearse writes that all these
beauties will pass or die, making the poem very depressing
Will pass and change, will die and be no more. The wayfarer
reminds of Pearse himself because he was an artistic soul
looking at other people knowing that it will all pass by.
I think Padraig Pearse was a great poet with huge talent but
unfortunately didnt have the chance to reach his peak. He is a
great example to all people as he was intelligent and a true
patriot.