First an apology to the spirit of W.B. 'Willie'
Yeats, for limiting this master of verse, the founder of the 'celtic twilight'
school and a Nobel laureate at that, to the place of a mere troubadour. Even
if this particular pigeonhole is one of vast importance in regards to the survival
of the oral tradition. In my opinion, the most important aspect of his body
of work, the subject, which stands out so specifically strong in his creations,
is the unrequited love he felt for Maude Gonne. This emotion, unrequited love,
is a theme, which provides a backdrop to his most succinct and emotive expression
in verse - as it has for many before him, and many since.
In the person of Maude Gonne, not only did he find an expression of longing
so powerful it threatened to become obsession; the character of his would-be
love was a model of incredible vitality. Maude Gonne is as vibrant a character
in the history of the Irish struggle for independence, as there could possibly
be. She was a powerful activist in the attempt to liberate the land from the
English land-lords and return it to the Irish who lived and worked on it, frequently
distributing jewels to the tenants so that they might buy their holdings back.
She was also outspoken in her attempts to get the release of political prisoners
both from the English and the Free State nationalists. Her nobility and purpose
garnered her much respect and admiration from both her beneficiaries as well
as her enemies. She was frequently associated with the sidhe, as her beauty
and passion were almost otherworldly, and her dedication to her people was reminiscent
of a Queen and her subjects.
In 'The Old Age of Queen Maeve' we can see these themes of unrequited
love, the troubadour tradition, the struggle for Irish independence, the regrets
of old age and mutual loss, as well as the mystical marriage these two entered
into twice in their association. In the first stanza he invokes the image of
a troubadour speaking to a crowd in hopes of attracting the attention of his
beloved. The defeatism of this action is shown in these lines.
'As though one listened there, and his voice sank / Or let its meaning mix into the strings.'
He had proposed to her on several occasions and
been denied, She was deeply impassioned with the struggle to free Ireland from
the tyranny of Britain. Her choice for a husband was Major John MacBride, founder
of the Irish Brigade, a member of the IRB and one of the sixteen executed for
the uprising in 1916, this poem was written the same year they were married.
The Last two stanzas are also particularly important to the nature of this reading
and shed light on their mutual relationship. For Willie there was no other woman
whom Maude could be compared with but Maeve, Queen of Connacht. He even goes
so far as to suggest there is no story of feminie nobilis which does
not reflect her story.
'For there is no high story about queens / In any ancient book but tells of you.'
Here and in the second stanza he seems to be speaking to her specifically. The excerpted lines from the second stanza, 'lucky eyes and a high heart' are in fact the title of one of the many biographies of Maude. In the final stanza he evokes the 'phantom desire' of the mystical marriage he and Maude professed to indulge in. W.B. Yeats, was a member of the occult society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he learned of astral travel; a process whereby the spirit was coaxed to leave the body and travel in the dream state or astral plane. The image of Aengus and his sweetheart in the following lines suggests the image he held in his mind regarding this spiritual union.
'Until two lovers came out of the air / With bodies of soft fire.'
Two other images bear mentioning regarding this reading. The last line of the second to last stanza, 'Half crazy with the thought, She too has wept!' a reflection on the spoken words preceding it, bring to mind the nature of regret in relation to this unrequited love. For to think that she too had some sorrow at not acting on their spiritual bonds in the physical, would indeed make one half-crazy. The truncated lines 'O unquiet heart' 'Outrun the measure' and, 'He replied, "I obey your will" seem also to have some specific message both to Maude, and in relation to his feelings towards her choice to marry MacBride. The power of love, especially unfulfilled love, has such a universal and timeless nature to it, that it stands as one of the most persistent images in the emotive world of W.B. Yeats' verse.