12. Maud as Helen

Yeats’s comparison of Maud to Helen of Troy. The background”: her marriage to, and subsequent legal separation from, John MacBride. Poems discussed include ‘A Woman Homer Sung,’ and the signature Maud Gonne poem, ‘No Second Troy.’ Also discussed: ‘Words,’ ‘Reconciliation,’ King and No King,’ ‘Peace,’ ‘Against Unworthy Praise,’ ‘The Drinking Song,’ ‘The Mask,’ and (in a brief coda) ‘All Things can Tempt Me’ and ‘Brown Penny.’