Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Sixteen Dead Men (Author: William Butler Yeats)

p.184

  1. O but we talked at large before
    The sixteen men were shot,
    But who can talk of give and take,
    What should be and what not
    While those dead men are loitering there
    To stir the boiling pot?

    2. p.185

  2. You say that we should still the land
    Till Germany's overcome;
    But who is there to argue that
    Now Pearse is deaf and dumb?
    And is their logic to outweigh
    MacDonagh's bony thumb?
  3. How could you dream they'd listen
    That have an ear alone
    For those new comrades they have found,
    Lord Edward and Wolfe Tone,
    Or meddle with our give and take
    That converse bone to bone?