Adam's Curse

Adam's Curse - William Butler Yeats

We sat together at one summer's end,
That beautiful mid woman, your close friend,
And you and I, and talked of poetry.
I said, "A line will take us hours maybe;
Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,
Our stitching and unstiching has been naught.
Better go down upon your marrow-bones
And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones
Like an old pauper, in all kinds of weather;
Is to work harder than all these, and yet
Be thought an idler by the noisy set
Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergy men
The martyrs call the world."


---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
Precendents 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.

I had a thought for no one's but your ears:
That you were beautiful, and that I strove
To love you in the old high way of love;
That it had all seemed happy, and yet we'd grown
As weary-hearted as that hollow moon.

Yeats' ballad "Adam's Curse" caught my eye because it seemed to be such a realistic and everyday tale. It read very nicely due to its rhyming couplets and smooth simplistic language that is straightforward, and yet eloquent. The most enjoyable portion of the poem for me was the social comments on poetry, beauty, and love. Firstly, the narrator's comment on the hard work of poetry that is unrecognized by the 'layman' was not only very realistic, but very well articulated, that to "articulate sweet sounds together Is to work harder than all these"- 'these' referring to the manual labours that he lists previous to that line. Secondly, the "beautiful mild woman" abruptly makes a comment on beauty, and women's unwritten task of labour to be beautiful. It seems this comment comes out of the blue, however, it does add to the social comment that the narrator is trying to portray. Thirdly, the narrator speaks of trivial duties of love that are based on "high courtesy" as the labour of man. In general, this poem speaks of trivial labours in three seperate circumstances, in order to perhaps reveal Truth in each case. This poem is a fine example of social commentary in an arbitrary fashion. I enjoyed it thoroughly!