W.B. Yeats - Adam's Curse

. . . . . . . . . And thereupon
That beautiful mild woman for whose sake
There's many a one shall find out all heartache
On finding that her voice is sweet and low
Replied, 'To be born woman is to know-
Although they do not talk of it at school-
That we must labour to be beautiful.'

I said, 'It's certain there is no fine thing
Since Adam's fall but needs much labouring.
There have been lovers who thought love should be
So much compounded of high courtesy
That they would sigh and quote with learned looks
Precedents out of beautiful old books;
Yet now it seems an idle trade enough.'

We sat grown quiet at the name of love;
We saw the last embers of daylight die,
And in the trembling blue-green of the sky
A moon, worn as if it had been a shell
Washed by time's waters as they rose and fell
About the stars and broke in days and years.

In the third stanza, Yeats seems to be saying that merely reciting love poems is not beauty in itself. The beauty is in the true feeling of the words. Reciting the words with sigh and quote is merely love by rote.

In the last stanza, Yeats ponders the woman in the poem (whom I used to think was Lady Gregory, but instead was Maud Gonne), and his feelings towards her. He had worked at love and had not succeeded. He could not achieve that beauty, and felt as tired for the effort as the ever-moving moon circling endlessly in the sky.

The following interpretation is by Ben:

You [Brian Jones] write[s] "In the third stanza, Yeats seems to be saying that merely reciting love poems is not beauty in itself. The beauty is in the true feeling of the words. Reciting the words with sigh and quote is merely love by rote.

In the last stanza, Yeats ponders the woman in the poem (whom I *believe* to be Lady Gregory), and his feelings towards her. He had worked at love and had not succeeded. He could not achieve that beauty, and felt as tired for the effort as the ever-moving moon circling endlessly in the sky."

I think the poems ending is essentially redemptive - although the tone is one of sadness, yeats finds beauty in the final lines of poetry - the symbol ultimately, tired as it is, is hauntingly evocative, and the "old high way of love" looks, if nothing else, like the food of poetry. There is a sprezzatura that makes the opening of the poem seem heavily ironic.

I could be wrong; would be interested to hear your thoughts

The following interpretation is by Kit Haggard:

Adam's Curse, by Yeats, has been one of those constant poems in my life that I return to again and again--it's a favorite of my mother's and I've heard it read a dozen times.

Your interpretation of the poem was very interesting, I think. The verse where I find fault is "I said, 'It's certain there is no fine thing...idle trade enough.'" Both interpretations on your website have this as a verse criticising the lovers who quote with learned looks. I think it's the opposite. Yeats finishes the stanza by saying that now, love has become an idle trade, and the whole poem is about working for the beautiful things in life--poetry and the beauty of a woman. He says, I believe, that lovers used to quote poetry and woo in the traditional sense of the word and now, love has become an idle trade. Men and woman fall in and out of love without all the traditional machinations--poetry and flowers and such. I think he's suggesting that love has become too easy.

And I'm inclined to agree with Ben on the meaning of the final verse. Yeats is trying to love this woman in the most noble way he can--"in the old high way of love"--but it is both of them he's referring to when he says "we have grown as weary-hearted as that hollow moon." The poem is about labor and working towards beauty--and the couple, Yeats and this woman, have grown tired of trying to make this relationship beautiful. That's what I believe.