Adam’s Curse (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: William Butler Yeats
- First Published: 1902
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Love or romance, Friendship, Bible, biblical imagery, or biblical symbolism, Labor
The Poem
William Butler Yeats’s “Adam’s Curse,” written in six uneven stanzas of iambic pentameter rhymed couplets, recounts one of the poet’s meetings with Maud Gonne, a free-spirited Irish patriot and sometime actress who was just returning from an extended trip abroad. Maud’s sister, the “beautiful mild” Kathleen, was the third person present, but the personal situation is mildly altered in the poem. Maud, identified only as “you,” is said to be the younger woman’s “close friend” rather than sister.
After setting the scene—three friends at...
[The entire page is 1613 words long]
