Adam'S Curse

In the chronology of Yeats' life, his book of poetry "Into the Seven Woods," published in 1903 and featuring "Adam's Curse", came at a unique and pivotal time when both his poetic style and identity were changing direction. Although confined to the poem's idyllic, pastoral setting, typical of early Yeats, "Adam's Curse" begins to explore ideas outside the realm of Irish mythology seen in earlier works, dipping into contemplation of more personal concerns. These primarily addressed themes of failed love, the finite nature of life, and society's lack of appreciation for the work involved in creating beauty are all rooted in the Biblical reference to the story of Adam and Eve. It is interesting that Yeats sets his scene in an Eden-like context, outdoors and at the end of summer.

"Adam's Curse" is written in first person, and it is safe to assume the speaker is Yeats himself, through his reference to the effort required to write poetry as well as the fact that the poem speaks to a once great, now 'weary-hearted' love. This second point is significant, given that Yeats' own great unrequited love of a decade and a half, Maud Gonne, had married Major John MacBride in early 1903.

Yeats presents the tragic themes and ideas in "Adam's Curse" with an understated grace, achieving an honest and affecting tone. The poem is written in heroic couplets, giving it a regularity of rhythm and rhyme that add to the speaker's gentle candor and create a sense of peacefulness, which Yeats refers to as "an alluring monotony."

The first stanza re-creates a conversation between the speaker (Yeats), his love (Maud), and her friend, a 'beautiful mild woman', and immediately introduces key ideas of the inherent difficulty of beauty, and the lack of appreciation for the poetic process and product;

'...A line will take us hours maybe;

Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,

Out stitching and unstitching has been naught.'

Thus, the poet's paradox is introduced: the greatest effort and care taken in composing poetry, likened to the detailed 'stitching and unstitching' of sewing, must remain hidden for the poem's ideas and imagery to stand out, leaving the poet's labor unrecognized. The fact that the entirety of the seemingly simple "Adam's Curse" is written in iambic pentameter attests to this. Yeats asserts that 'to articulate sweet sounds together' is more difficult than the most intense physical labor, yet 'bankers, schoolmasters and clergymen' would consider a poet 'an idler.' These references to contemporary life and society are a marked change in Yeats' poetry, as he turns gradually from mythology to reality and reflects the story of Adam in modern life.

This idea of the modern implications of the fall of Adam and Eve is perpetuated in the next stanza, this time from the female standpoint of the lover's friend, as she answers the speaker:

'To be born woman is to know--

Although they do not talk of it in school--

That we must labor to be beautiful.'

Here, Yeats' initial idea broadens to include physical beauty in addition to poetic beauty as something that may be admired for the final product, but cannot appreciated for its effort and process and still retain its magic.

It becomes clear that 'no fine thing...Since Adam's fall' can exist without 'much laboring.' Even the organic act of love is 'compounded of high courtesy,' rendered trying and artificial. Yeats expresses lovers' lack of true sentiment and passion with some disdain;

'...they would sign and quote with learned looks

Precedents out of beautiful old books.'

The terrible irony of the 'beautiful' works quoted by lovers becoming void of meaning and indeed true beauty is evident. That which should be moving and poignant is missing; romance, according to Yeats, 'now seems an idle trade enough.'

Yeats' use of tender, unembellished diction in his re-telling of this discussion makes the culminating realization