Yeatsian Trivia

[poliphilo]

I've spent much of the day noodling around the world of W.B. Yeats. It's hard to separate the man from the poet. I don't suppose any writer ever did such a thoroughgoing job of mythologising himself, his times and the people he knew.

One treasures small deflating incidents- like the time Yeat's father smacked him round the back of the head with a framed picture- breaking the glass- after an argument about Ruskin.

It's hard to find a picture of him that's not been posed- but that's true, I suppose, of anyone of his generation. There are occasional snapshots- in which he wears a social smile or gets caught between poses- most of them taken on the lawns of country houses.

Talking about photos I've learned- for what it's worth- that Maud Gonne- supposedly a person of statuesque beauty- looked a lot like Cherie Blair and that Yeats's wife- Georgie Hyde-Lees (who I find more attractive than Gonne)- looked a lot like Yoko Ono. 

Comments

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

I've never seen a photo of Maud Gonne where she didn't look rough as a badger's arse. And that chin, my God...

Whereas yes, George Yeats was striking, if nothing on Gonne junior, whom Yeats loved more. I wrote a play about the Yeatses wedding night!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I believe the marriage was coming apart at the seams until Georgie made with the automatic writing...

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

That was the night of the honeymoon!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But not the first night I believe. Maybe the third of fourth...

G apparently confessed she was planning to fake it- and then something took over.