Come Gather Round Me, Parnellites
About the text
Yeats first published this poem in 1938. It is out of copyright in Ireland and the EU, but in the United States it stays in copyright until the start of 2034, and this site is served partly from American servers. So for now we give the notes without the full text; it will appear here in 2034.
It begins: Come gather round me, Parnellites
In brief
SummaryA drinking song in praise of Parnell, proud leader and lover.
The singer calls the old followers of Charles Stewart Parnell to gather round, stand up while they still can and drink to their chosen man, now long buried. He gives his reasons for praising him: Parnell fought the power of England and helped the Irish poor and the farmers; he was proud, and a proud man is a lovely man; and he loved a woman. The last stanza names who brought him down, the Bishops and the Party, and a husband who had sold his wife. But the stories that last are the ones sung over a glass.
Lines to remember
And Parnell loved his country,
And a proud man's a lovely man,
Line by line
Lines 1 to 8Raise a glass
The Parnellites are called together to praise their man and to stand upright while they can, for they will soon lie where he lies. The glasses are filled and the bottle goes round, setting the tone of a tavern gathering.
Lines 9 to 16Reasons for praise
The first reason is political: he fought England's might and saved the Irish poor, and every farmer owes him what he has. Then comes a reason of another kind, dropped in with a wink: Parnell loved a lass.
Lines 17 to 24A proud man
The final reason is that every man who sings keeps Parnell in mind. He was proud, none prouder, and pride makes a man lovely. The bottle goes round again.
Lines 25 to 32Who brought him down
The Bishops and the Party made the tragedy, together with a husband who first sold his wife and then betrayed him. Yet the stories that live longest are sung over drink, and the song ends by joining Parnell's two loves, his country and his lass.
Themes
Parnell's pride
Yeats admired Parnell as a proud, solitary leader. Here pride is a virtue: "a proud man's a lovely man". The song celebrates him not only for his politics but for his bearing, the aristocratic scorn that Yeats prized in public men.
Love and betrayal
The refrain-like mentions of the "lass" turn the scandal that ruined Parnell into part of his glory. The last stanza blames the Church, his own party and a husband who connived. Love for country and love for a woman end the poem side by side, not in conflict.
Song as memory
The poem trusts song over history: the stories that last are "sung above the glass". By writing a drinking song rather than an elegy, Yeats places Parnell in popular memory, among ordinary men raising glasses.
Context
The poem was first published in New Poems (Cuala Press, Dublin, 1938). Charles Stewart Parnell (1846 to 1891) led the Irish Parliamentary Party until 1890, when he was named in the divorce of Katharine O'Shea. The Catholic bishops and most of his party turned against him, and he died the next year.
Yeats had written of Parnell's fall before, in "To a Shade" and "Parnell's Funeral". The line about a husband who sold his wife reflects the view, argued in the 1930s by Parnell's defenders, that Captain O'Shea had known of the affair and used it.
Form
Four eight-line stanzas in ballad metre, alternating four and three beats, rhyming on the even lines. Stanzas end on repeated tags about passing the bottle or loving a lass, like a chorus. The rollicking beat of a pub song carries a bitter story lightly.