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Essay on 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 …show more content…

He is definitely using a parallel to describe his poetry and his short time with Maud. He believes that falling in love with Maud is so similar to the hard work he puts into the poems he writes. If one were not too look into the poem they would in fact miss this entirely. Yeats then begins the next part of the poem quite literally. He recalls a conversation he has with Kathleen, Maud’s sister. She is speaking of beautiful women, and how beauty is not achieved easily. Beauty is not as natural as many people think.
This beauty blinds a man, just as Yeats was by Maud. Yeats thought Maud was beautiful and did not see the flaws until now. It is sad, because Yeats now realizes, “there is no fine thing”, just as God has cursed men, he has done the same to women. He is sure that there is neither a perfect romance nor a perfect woman. He states that it must be labored as the rest of life. Yeats speaks of the traditions that he followed to court Maud. Men have laid out the laws on how to fall in love, and he followed these lessons. These traditions now seem frivolous to him, since he doesn’t care anymore. They did not work for him and he lost his love. He is kind of angry that he was foolish enough to believe they would work. He realizes that love is not an organized process and it, once again, requires

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