ON A POLITICAL PRISONER She that but little patience knew, >From childhood on, had now so much A grey gull lost its fear and flew Down to her cell and there alit, And there endured her fingers' touch And from her fingers ate its bit. Did she in touching that lone wing Recall the years before her mind Became a bitter, an abstract thing, Her thought some popular enmity : Blind and leader of the blind Drinking the foul ditch where they lie? When long ago I saw her ride Under Ben Bulben to the meet, The beauty of her country-side With all youth's lonely wildness stirred, She seemed to have grown clean and sweet Like any rock-bred, sea-borne bird: Sea-borne, or balanced on the air When first it sprang out of the nest Upon some lofty rock to stare Upon the cloudy canopy, While under its storm-beaten breast Cried out the hollows of the sea. This poem was first published in "The Dial" in November 1920. The prisoner refers to lovely Irish Nationalist Countess Constance (Gore-Booth) Markiewicz. Although she was sentenced to death for her role in the Easter 1916 Rebellion, her sentence was ultimately commuted and she was released from prison on 18 June 1917. On 24 April 1916, the day after Easter Sunday, an Irish Republic had been proclaimed, and a force of approximately 700 Irish Volunteers occupied parts of Dublin; the rebellion was suppressed by the British forces with the final surrender occurring on the 19th of April. The word enmity refers to deep hatred, often between enemies. Yeats also refers to Ben Bulben, a mountain near Sligo, the principal town in Co. Sligo, in northwestern Ireland, the home of Yeats' maternal grandparents. Born in Dublin, Yeats spent a good portion of his early years in Sligo. Lissadell House, 4 miles (6 km) NW of Drumcliffe, is a 19th century Georgian house, the childhood home! of the Constance Gore-Booth and her sister Eva Gore-Booth. W. B. Yeats was a guest at their home regularly and slept in a bedroom above the porch. The dining and music rooms of Lisaddell House are particularly striking, as are the gardens with their masses of daffodils in spring, nearby pine forests and access to Drumcliffe Bay.