“Easter, 1916” begins by establishing the voice of the speaker, whom the reader can understand as Yeats himself, and his relationship to the martyrs of the Easter Rising. He writes: “I have met them at close of day / Coming with vivid faces / From counter or desk among grey / Eighteenth-century houses” (Lines 1-4). In these first four lines, Yeats creates the rhythm and meter of the poem, a kind of iambic trimeter (although it varies throughout the poem) with an ABAC rhyming structure. He tells the reader that he is acquainted with these rebels in a casual way, having encountered them on the streets of Dublin as they leave their “counter or desk” (Line 3) at the end of a workday.

Yeats elaborates on the small interactions he has had with the rebels, saying that these interactions have generally consisted of “a nod of the head / Or polite meaningless words” (Lines 5-6). He emphasizes this lack of connection with the repetition of the phrase “polite meaningless words” (Line 8) a few lines later. Not only did Yeats feel a certain amount of polite, aloof indifference towards this group, he adopted a sense of light mockery or judgment toward their political methods, noting that after encountering them, he would often think “Of a mocking tale or a gibe / To please a companion / Around the fire at the club, / Being certain that they and I / But lived where motley is worn” (Lines 10-14).