This poem will need some background story, Yeats was in love with a revolutionary Irish woman named Maude. He loved her and asked her to marry him 4 times, she denied all of them. They had a friendship but later turned to lovers. She denied him again by not accepting his love any longer. This is where this poem has come from, his hurt and loss of love from Maude. "Why should I blame her that she filled my days with misery, or tha she would of late have taught ingornat men most violent ways." Maude was a revolutionary and seemed to be more interested in her poltical life than her personal life. She must have loved him but caused him so much misery, but was it her fault she caused him misery, or was it his own personal problem to be dealt with and none of her concern.
"With beauty like a tightened bow" she is, to him, of amazing beauty, but is hard to crack, like a tight bow, and seemingly holding up something that would fall if undone. She is fragile, in his eyes, but tight and rigid enough to sustain itself, everyone has their weakness.
"Why, what could she have done, being what she is? Was there another Troy for her to burn?" He seems a little pathetic in this poem, writing about a friend and ex-lover of his that will not accept his love anymore and he compares her to Helen of Troy, the woman that caused millions to die for the love of her husband, the Kind and another man. It seems a little conceded for him to compare the two women, she is just denying him, not destroying lives.
I can compare to this poem because I have been "played" as we modernly use the term to mean what this poet has experienced. She was obviously interested in him and desired his friendship, but nothing more was to come of it, she made sure of that, although she did concede once, it was not her will to keep it up, and he could not accept that. I have never been that desperate, I would usually move on and not speak of the specific girl until it didn't hurt when her name was mentioned. I think Yeats is a hopeless romantic, too bad his one true love was not mutual.
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Jack,
ReplyDeleteVery insightful and engaged response to and exploration of Yeats's poem, with a good connection to your own experiences. Nice job of presenting a clear and interesting post.
I like your view on things. When reading those poems I so often focused on his side of things and didn't even consider how the woman probably did little in the way of actually TRYING to break his heart. I guess I'm too sympathetic to the writer!
ReplyDeleteThis was good reading. I can not imagine what a male perspective would bring to the table when it comes to a scorned lover but you certainly cleared some details with this one. I honestly have to blame him as well because it seemed that he just did not get the picture and from a woman's perspective, if we tell you no more than twice...on to the next one.
ReplyDeleteNice reading and interesting how you related the poem to your personal life. I also think sometimes women have fun toying with the feelings of men.
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