The Truth of Love Revealed in Adam’s Curse

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The Truth of Love Revealed in Adam’s Curse “Adam’s Curse” is a poem by William Butler Yeats that was written at a time when his first true love, Maud Gonne, had married Major John MacBride. This may have caused Yeats much pain and Yeats may have felt as cursed as Adam felt when God had punished man from the Garden of Eden. This poem, in fact, symbolizes his pain and loss of love that he once had and is a recollection of his memories during happier times with Maud. In the beginning of the poem “We sat together at one summer’s end/ That Beautiful mild woman your close friend/ And you and I, and talked of poetry”, Yeats recalls a beautiful time with Maud. Poetry could be related to the language of love, and Yeats recalls falling in love with Maud. He is reflecting on time that he has spent courting Maud, however due to the curse that Adam received from God, falling in love is not as simple as it was before. The “stitching and unstitching” tells of how hard it is to form a bond and put together love. This love is then taken apart and worthless for Yeats, because he does not acquire Maud. This development of love was not easy for Yeats and neither is the loose of love. He is writing a poem here to express the difficulty he is having losing his first love, Maud. He expresses this in a poem and compares poetry to falling in love. This is a curse from God to all men. He wants it to be told that to write poetry is just as difficult as his attempt to court Maud. It is extremely difficult to produce a beautiful poem, as it is difficult to fall in love. Many people think that writing poetry is not hard work, as falling in love seems to be easy for some people. To make, “sweet sounds together” as in a po... ... middle of paper ... ...he may have done something wrong in his relationship with Maud, and he too is being punished as Adam was in the bible. This poem is a beautiful recollection of love and how difficult it is to attain in our world. Yeats does not seem angry that he lost Maud, however he does feel God’s curse on men. He seems unsure if true love actually exists and thinks that he got as close as he ever will at finding it. Maud was unable to give Yeats the love he yearned in return, which is why Yeats felt the need to express himself through this poem. Perhaps this poem was the beginning of a healing process for Yeats. He was unable to express himself to Maud so he had to express himself through his poetry. His poetry, in turn was as difficult to write as his love for Maud was to accomplish. Yeats is just exhausted at this point and it is seen at the end of his poem.

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