{
 "id": "w-b-yeats/adams-curse",
 "title": "Adam’s Curse",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "W. B. Yeats",
 "poet_slug": "w-b-yeats",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "In the Seven Woods",
 "book_slug": "in-the-seven-woods",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 6,
 "container": "In the Seven Woods",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "In the Seven Woods (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/insevenwoodsbein00yeat"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49609",
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   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Dublin_University_Review/fE8wAQAAMAAJ",
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   "https://www.google.ie/books/edition/The_Dublin_University_Review/TFAwAQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.google.ie/books/edition/The_Irish_Monthly/EMoaAAAAYAAJ",
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  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-21"
 },
 "stats": {
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  "longest_line_chars": 49,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "We sat together at one summer’s end,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That beautiful mild woman, your close friend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And you and I, and talked of poetry.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I said: “A line will take us hours maybe;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet if it does not seem a moment’s thought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better go down upon your marrow bones",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like an old pauper, in all kinds of weather;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For to articulate sweet sounds together",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is to work harder than all these, and yet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be thought an idler by the noisy set",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The martyrs call the world.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And thereupon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That beautiful mild woman for whose sake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s many a one shall find out all heartache",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On finding that her voice is sweet and low",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Replied: “To be born woman is to know,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Although they do not talk of it at school⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That we must labour to be beautiful.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I said: “It’s certain there is no fine thing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since Adam’s fall but needs much labouring.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There have been lovers who thought love should be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So much compounded of high courtesy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That they would sigh and quote with learned looks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Precedents out of beautiful old books;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet now it seems an idle trade enough.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We sat grown quiet at the name of love;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We saw the last embers of daylight die,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the trembling blue-green of the sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A moon, worn as if it had been a shell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Washed by time’s waters as they rose and fell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About the stars and broke in days and years.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I had a thought for no one’s but your ears;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That you were beautiful, and that I strove",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To love you in the old high way of love;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That it had all seemed happy, and yet we’d grown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As weary hearted as that hollow moon.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}