"The Mother"

Patrick Pearse, the charismatic leader of the 1916 Rebellion, wrote this poem in his prison cell in Kilmainham Gaol, just one hour before his execution by firing squad.  Pearse was convinced that Ireland could not become free without what he called "blood sacrifice."  Here he tries to come to terms with the most personal cost of that sacrifice, even if, at the poem's end, he reaffirms the nobility of and need for such death.

I do not grudge them:  Lord, I do not grudge               

My two strong sons that I have seen go out

To break their strength and die, they and a few,

In bloody protest for a glorious thing,

They shall be spoken of among their people,

The generations shall remember them,

And call them blessed;

But I will speak their names to my own heart

In the long nights;

The little names that were familiar once

Round my dead hearth.

Lord, thou art hard on mothers:

We suffer in their coming and their going;

And tho' I grudge them not, I weary, weary

Of the long sorrow -- And yet I have my joy:

My sons were faithful, and they fought.

                                                                                                                                                                    Patrick Pearse, 1879-1916