Trace Yeats' changing attitude to contemporary Irish revolutionaries NU W B Yeats was a famous Irish poet In his poem Easter he writes about the Irish men and women who fought in the Easter Rising against British rule At first Yeats did not like them But later he began to respect them The poem shows how his thoughts changed At First Yeats Did Not Like the Revolutionaries In the beginning Yeats thought the Revolutionaries were foolish people He saw them every day and did not take them seriously So he says I have passed with a nod of the head Or polite meaningless words He thought their talk about freedom was just noise He believed they were not great leaders Yeats Was Shocked by Their Deaths When the British killed the revolutionaries Yeats was surprised Their deaths changed his mind He saw that they had great courage They gave their