![]() Surrounded by his extraordinary family and his radically revolutionary neighbours, Bedford Park whipped the beautiful young poet into the maelstrom of poetry that would give rise to a nation.” In British polls of favourite lyrical works, it is Yeats who regularly scores the most hits.Īs Geldof has put it: “Bedford Park is where the national poet understood what it was to be impoverished, alien, exiled, became obsessed with a woman who would haunt his life and give rise to the greatest poetry of the 20th century. The west London enclave of Bedford Park is also the place where he created some of the most popular poems ever written in the English language, among them The Lake Isle of Innisfree. The sculpture, to be unveiled on Tuesday by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is the work of the British sculptor Conrad Shawcross, and its arrival in a leafy London square will mark the end of a slow process of recognition in the area where Yeats grew up and lived well into adulthood. Photograph: George C Beresford/Getty Images Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.WB Yeats in 1911. Maud Gonne, The Autobiography of Maud Gonne: A Servant of the Queen. Kathleen Williams, Senior Reference Librarian, Bibliographer for Irish Studies, John J.Michael Bailey, Student Assistant to Kathleen Williams and Ph.D.Maud Gonne is best understood not as Yeats’ unrequited love, but as a strong and influential woman. She was active and influential in women’s suffragist, labor, humanitarian, cultural and nationalist causes. It hints at the language of a strong, feminist woman who believed in her own strength and put her beliefs into action. The letter mentioned at the start indicates much more than her curious relationship with Yeats. A prolific writer on many social causes, she was also very much an active participant in aiding the poor, the dispossessed, and disenfranchised. Following the War of Independence, Gonne opposed the Free State, was imprisoned twice, and worked tirelessly on behalf of republican prisoners and their families. In 1918, Gonne was accused of assisting the “German plot,” and imprisoned alongside Constance Markievicz, Kathleen Clarke, and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington in Holloway women’s prison in London. ![]() ![]() Loretta Clarke Murray Collection (MS2016.016), John J. Gonne’s activism also extended to the labor movement, where she coauthored “The Right to Life and The Rights of Property” with famous Irish Socialist and 1916 Proclamation signer James Connolly. Through this endeavor, Gonne was introduced to and included in a wide web of Irish activists that included fellow female radicals such as Constance Markievicz and Helena Molony. It began a monthly publication, Bean na hÉireann (Woman of Ireland), in 1908 and published pieces supporting women’s rights and suffrage as well as Irish nationalism.She served as its president until 1914 when the group merged with Cumann na mBan ( The Irishwomen’s Council). In 1900, Gonne was a founding member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of Ireland), a nationalist women’s organization that supported an independent Ireland, the promotion and education of Gaelic culture and language, the promotion of Ireland’s domestic economy, and discouraged all uses of English and displays of English culture. ![]() She believed each to be unjust, and this inspired her lifelong commitment to issues of humanitarianism and social justice. In the 1890s,Gonne witnessed evictions of Irish tenants and incarcerations of men for rebellious acts. Known as Yeats’ unrequited love, Gonne was, in her own right, a powerful woman committed to social, cultural, spiritual, feminist, and nationalist causes. The world should thank me for not marrying you.” This letter both succinctly captures the extraordinary Maud Gonne and, paradoxically, overshadows her. In a letter to her suitor, William Butler Yeats, who complained that he was unhappy without her, Maud Gonne wrote “Oh yes, you are, because you make beautiful poetry out of what you call your unhappiness and you are happy in that. Loretta Clarke Murray Collection(MS2016.016), John J. ![]()
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