The Ghost of Roger Casement
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: O what has made that sudden noise?
In brief
SummaryCasement's ghost haunts John Bull, the self-satisfied figure of England.
A ballad with a haunting refrain: the ghost of Roger Casement is beating on the door. The first stanza hears a sudden noise and a roar of mockery within the roar of the sea, and notes that the sea is not the old, friendly sea that once protected England. The next two stanzas mock John Bull, England personified: elected to Parliament, praised at banquets for preaching trust in Empire and Church, ruling India on the strength of his proud inheritance. In the last stanza the speaker visits John Bull's family tomb in a village church, finds famous men there, and reflects that fame and virtue rot. He calls on beloved and bitter men to gather and shout.
Lines to remember
Is beating on the door.
Line by line
Lines 1 to 10A noise at the door
Something has made a sudden noise and stands on the threshold. It never came by sea, since John Bull and the sea are friends, yet this is no longer the old sea or shore. A roar of mockery sounds within the sea's roar: Casement's ghost is knocking.
Lines 11 to 20John Bull in Parliament
John Bull has been elected and is widely admired, for at feasts and banquets he knows how to say that all must trust in the British Empire and the Church. The mockery is light but pointed, and the refrain undercuts his success.
Lines 21 to 30John Bull in India
He has gone to India, where all must heed him, since histories prove that no other breed has such an inheritance. But a proverb follows: a house that lacks truthfulness will have no luck. The ghost keeps knocking.
Lines 31 to 40The family tomb
The speaker pokes about a village church and copies what he can from John Bull's family tomb, full of famous men. Yet fame and virtue rot. He calls "beloved and bitter men" to draw round and raise a shout as the ghost beats on the door.
Themes
Empire and conscience
John Bull is prosperous, admired and certain of his right to rule, at home and in India. Casement's ghost is the conscience he cannot keep out. The refrain turns each stanza of success into a scene of haunting, suggesting that the treatment of Casement is a stain that pride cannot cover.
Fame and decay
The tomb in the village church holds famous men, but the speaker observes that fame and virtue rot. The imperial inheritance praised in stanza three ends as illegible inscriptions in "religious gloom". Only the ghost, still loud at the door, seems fully alive, and the dead patriot outlasts the famous men in their tomb.
Context
The poem was first published in New Poems (Cuala Press, Dublin, May 1938), where it follows "Roger Casement", which defended the executed Irish patriot against the claim that his diaries proved him immoral. Casement was hanged in London in 1916 and buried in the prison yard, which is why his ghost never crossed the sea. John Bull is the traditional stout, prosperous figure standing for England in cartoons and satire.
Form
Four ten-line stanzas in ballad metre, alternating four- and three-beat lines rhymed on alternate lines, each closing with the same two-line refrain. The refrain works like a drumbeat, and the jaunty street-ballad rhythm makes the mockery of John Bull sound like a song sung in a public house.