"Adam's Curse" by W.B. Yeats (poetry reading)

This is said to be addressed to Maud Gonne, a reasonable guess because there are no poems by Yeats declaring love for anyone else. The other woman is sometimes said to be Maud's sister Kathleen, but that's less likely because he refers to her as Maud's "close friend".

It is a terrible imposition on a woman to be loved in such an intense way and such love-attachments invariably fail - or change into something more practical. Wouldn't any girl prefer a practical, rough-and-ready, you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours, real-world relationship?

Any woman so loved must wonder what she did to deserve such an honour, how much the man knows about her and how much his feelings depend on her merits. She must feel like a projection he has created, like Pygmalion created Galatea.

Yeats couldn't make it plainer that what he loves is a product of his own idealised and literary views. It couldn't lead to a relationship because no living woman could play such a role - or want to play it. If he had her, would he know what to do with her? What has what he feels got to do with the friendship, the mutual regard and support, the division of labour and responsibility that are the essence of a real working partnership? Sure now, wouldn't she get terribly bored up on that pedestal?

You can hear James Wright - a famous American poet and reader of poetry - read it here, recorded in New York City 1967:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20931

And Robert Pinsky here - very good
http://www.slate.com/id/2234405?obref=obinsite

The photograph is of Maud Gonne.

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[thepassion10]

I feel that learned looks refers to Yeat's understanding that he had learnt the ways of love which failed to win him Maud Gonne's Love rather than learn=ed as in Intellectual Understanding of Love and that what he was feeling in the Poem was the Experience of Love felt and spurned and that was what was important to him so I feel learned is the proper way to pronounce that word rather than learn-ed

[SpokenVerse]

@thepassion10 But then it wouldn't scan. It's an iambic pentameter.

[marthaflatley]

I think most girls do want exactly that kind of love. think of twilight, and edward's love for bella, so massively popular with young girls. I agree that you wonder what you have done to deserve a love like that and do feel like it's not about you, but that kind of love is still a lot nicer than an every day friendship. I wonder what maud gonne disliked and was unattracted to in yeats. why did she reject him so many times.

[thepassion10]

Hi Tom, I brought it up simply because in the books I have read it in the accent is no longer included. I have a similar problem with modern printings of Shakespeare's Sonnets. I find feeling the beat to be better than counting the beat. Also there is the thing of Yeat's using idiomatic Irish speech manners in his reading style. In that manner of speech the accent would fall on the e and r of learned rather than on the 2nd syllable of learned

[solarisqs]

Grand - and thanks for the James Wright audio link too. His reading is excellent as well.

[MiZTermi]

This is one of my favorites!