Adams Curse Commentary

‘Adams Curse’ is a poem written by W. B. Yeats. It was published in 1903 in Yeats’ anthology “In
the Seven Woods”. The poem is in the form of a conversation between 3 close friends who contemplate
the decline of poetry’s esteem and the narrator’s thoughts on this decline. This is reflected through the
themes of Limbo and Effort, and the structure of the poem.

The theme of Limbo in ‘Adams Curse’ is used to convey the state in which poetry is in. Twilight
hours, being the state of both day and night, or light and dark, are referenced in line 30 and 31 where
‘The last embers of daylight died’ and ‘the trembling blue-green sky’ are used to show that poetry is in
an awkward state. Embers are specifically mentioned because it conveys that the flare or appeal that
poetry had is gone, but people are still writing and putting time into their poetry. This poetry is ‘Hollow’.
This can be seen in line 39, with the ‘hollow moon’. The ‘hollow moon’ shows the state of limbo in
poetry as well, the poetry exists, it is still being written, but no one appreciates it and feels from it. The
limbo brings a strong contrast in the current life of poetry, where it will quickly die out if no one
appreciates it like the used to.

Throughout the poem Yeats uses the theme or motif of effort to convey poetry’s idle market
and appeal. The poem begins as a discussion, contemplating poetry’s state of being, the narrator starts
the discussion by saying “A line will take us hours maybe; yet if it does not seem a moment’s thought,
our stitching and unstitching has been naught.” In these lines the narrator suggests that he works very
hard on every line of his poems to make them perfect, but if the lines are not effortless to understand,
they mean nothing. The Narrator then contrasts the job of a poet to the jobs of physical laborers and
says that poetry takes more time and effort than other jobs, and yet people think of them as an ‘idler’
(Lines 7-11). This appeals to the decline of poetry because those who do not write poetry think that it is
an easy trade, the narrator is looked down upon by the middle class (bankers, schoolmasters, etc.) as
they think poets don’t work hard (line 9). Since poets are frowned upon, their work is not appreciated
which is leading poetry to its death, regardless the amount of effort is put into a single line of a poem.
These same beliefs are conveyed onto the beauty of women, where a friend of the narrator states: “To
be born woman is to know […] That we must labor to be beautiful (Lines 19 and 21).” Women are
criticized for taking too long to get ready, but the effort they put into becoming beautiful is in vain, as
they are simply put down because they take too long to do so. The beauty of a woman is compared to
the beautify of poetry, both as both take long amounts of time and effort to become beautiful, but are
not appreciated and in fact criticized as being idle trades. The narrator believes that poetry is in decline
because the appeal and love for poetry does not match the work, effort, and time put into creating
poetry, instead it is criticized as the poets are not involved in traditional labor intensive jobs.