13. Responsibilities and The Wild Swans at Coole

Maud’s imagined response to the untitled prefatory poem to Responsibilities. Discussion of ‘A Memory of Youth’ and ‘Fallen Majesty.’ Sustained analysis of the enigmatic ‘The Cold Heaven.’ Of the poems in The Wild Swans at Coole, those examined include the title poem, ‘Her Praise,’ The People’ (a crucial poem, place in the context of the 1897 riot, in which Yeats prevented Maud, against her will, from participating the melee), ‘His Phoenix,’ ’A Thought from Propertius,’ ‘Broken Dreams,’ ‘On Woman, ‘Memory, ‘ and ‘A Deep-sworn Vow.’