W. B. Yeats

"We had fed the heart on fantasies,
The heart's grown brutal from the fare;
More substance in our enmities
Than in our love; O honey-bees,
Come build in the empty house of the stare."

- 'The Stare's Nest by my Window' from 'Meditations in the Time of Civil War' by W. B. Yeats

In this poem, Yeats is calling for all of Ireland to come together instead of fighting amongst each other, written as it was during the Civil War. In this particular quote, Yeats is speaking of the "fantasies" of freedom and independence that, although noble in intent, have made the heart "brutal" in its attempts to make these visions reality. Yeats is saying that people have become more focused on their opposition in the Civil War than on their love of Ireland itself. Yeats is appealing to the Irish people to "build" rather than break, now that they finally have their independence.