the doom of adam's curse

                                

                         THE DOOM OF  ADAM'S CURSE

Yeats – a poet known for his obsession with irish and greek mythology, maud gonne and his faith in occult dark natural power of fate. Although his poetry ranges from irish revolution with all spices of politics to those innermost songs of solitary desires trying to express his unfulfilled love for maud gonne, yeats through his unique symbolism and special place in the changing history carved out a unique place for himself – a mystical observer and chronicler of change and its relation with the roots of history and mythology.

Adam’s curse is a poem that links up his view about love, poetry and nature. Imagine a calm evening with three friends sitting together – yeats , his beloved  - Maud Gonne and her sister Mrs. Katheline  Pitcher. A mild conversation with yeats encouraging Maud Gonne to be soft spoken and be more feminine like Katheline results in an intellectual debate where Maud Gonne puts forward her own views that to be beautiful requires a lot of effort for a woman and this is not even taught in any school.

Yeats turns philosophical and links up beauty with truth and hence with poetry. He remarks that to create anything beautiful is a hard work ,just like creating a piece of poetry which is more difficult than building a building or any other official work of a banker or merchant and yet poets and artists are looked down upon. Alas! The fate of beauty. ‘Beauty has the curse of looking simple’.

This links up his love for poetry to his love for Maud Gonne and he laments the time when love had chivalric notions and required a lot of courtship and long arduous painstaking efforts. He commented upon the changing society that love had become a child’s play just like poetry meant for trade. People in the changing society were writing to be sold and loving to fall out of love again. For him, that was no beauty, that was no truth. As without hard work involved no beauty could have aroused just like without efforts no woman could appear to be lady like and beautiful – in Maud’s terms.

With the mention of love suddenly one draws out of their conversation along with them and steps into the external scenic visual going with their mood. A distant fading moon reflecting their hearts and psyches – yell out the doings of time and the sad gloom shadowing their interior selves.

Adam’s curse was to make an effort to create anything as close to paradise. So was his fate. In order to attain love, beauty, or anything worth truth or beautiful  one has to make an effort. Hence ends yeat’s poem in a fine blend of romantic background, maneting emotions and philosophical endeavours – open to anyone reading it – compelling one to give it repeatative reflections and fall back upon time and again – at each effort- each endeavour – to create anything beautiful. 

by - mystical wanderer