He was led by the spirit - maybe
Let's start with Maud Gonne. A New York Times* article from 2008 describes Maud Gonne as a "beautiful, brainy feminist Irish revolutionary" and the muse for much of Yeats' romantic poetry over several decades. As mentioned in the previous post, Yeats' fixation with Gonne led him to propose to her four times -- and he was turned down four times. Still the relationship persevered in what they would call a mystical or spiritual marriage.
Both were fascinated by the occult and the mystical. In 1908, for instance, Gonne was in Paris and sent Yeats a letter describing a vision she experienced: "I had such a wonderful experience last night that I must know at once if it affected you & how? At a quarter of 11 last night I put on this body & and thought strongly of you & desired to go to you."
Because she was an actress, Yeats wrote a play for her that he intended for her to star in, but she refused to take part in it, according to the Times article. Another source I read says she did take on the lead role. Ten years after meeting him, Gonne kissed him romantically for the first time and immediately confessed she'd had an affair with a French journalist.
She also told him that she had borne the journalist a son, who died two years later. Subsequently she invited the journalist to join her in the child's tomb, where a second child was conceived in the hope he would be the reincarnation of her first son. She bore a daughter, Iseult (a name many, if not most, of us know by the variation Isolde), instead.
Before asking Gonne to marry him, he consulted an astrologist. Presumably the seer told him the signs were favorable, but she turned him down again. Not to be deterred, Yeats asked Maud's permission to seek Iseult's hand. Iseult, 22 at the time, had no particular interest in the man who'd pursued her mother for so many years so she turned him down as well.
Enter Bertha Georgie Hyde-Lees, known to most as Georgie. Her parents were a militia captain and the daughter of a barrister/manufacturer. Her father left the militia after inheriting an uncle's fortune, and the Hyde-Lees family didn't approve of much about the man except his money, which came in handy as Hyde-Lees and her mother were able to travel widely on his fortune.
Sadly, Hyde-Less' father became an alcoholic, which led to divorce and an early death. Still, through her mother and an influential writer friend of her mother, she was able to meet a number of well-known writers and artists, including one W.B Yeats, when she was 17. They maintained a friendship, and seven years later, Yeats asked her to marry him after being rejected by the Gonne women. She said "yes," and the pair were married with weeks of the rejection. She'd just turned 25; he was 52.
While on their honeymoon, Georgie noted that Yeats seemed glum, which she attributed to his having failed to get over the rejections. She also had an interest in spiritualism and the occult and had an, um, inspired idea.
"On the afternoon of October 24, 1917, four days after my marriage, my wife surprised me by attempting automatic writing," Yeats would later write.** Automatic writing involves a person sitting with a piece of paper and a writing instrument, clearing their mind, and connecting with a spirit that tells them what to write.
Yeats was fascinated: "What came in disjointed sentences, in almost illegible writing, was so exciting, sometimes so profound, that I persuaded her to give an hour or two day after day to the unknown writer."
Yeats sometimes joined in, and the couple produced 4,000 pages of material. Scholars looking over the materials years later have noted that the messages sent by the spirits led Yeats to give up his obsession with the Gonnes, and the spirits gave advice on Yeats' diet and suggestions on how he could improve Georgie's enjoyment of their intimate life, including the best times for the couple to attempt to conceive.
The scholars have also noted how much inspiration the spirits provided for Yeats' poetry. But they also suggest the spirits were really Georgie (or George, as Yeats insisted she be called) Hyde-Lees Yeats. Surely not!
* The quotes in the first two grafs were taken from "Yeats Meets the Digital Age, Full of Passionate Intensity," by Jim Dwyer, July 20, 2008, retrieved on this blog's publication date date from nytimes.com .
** This quote and the subsequent quote were taken from "W.B. Yeats' Live-in 'Spirit Medium,' " by Emily Ludolph, Dec. 5, 2018, retrieved on this blog's publication date from daily.jstor.org
Image: W.B. Yeats;Bertha Georgie Yeats, (nee Hyde-Lees), by Lady Ottoline Morrell, Sept. 1920. NPGx140876. Used under Creative Commons License from the National Portrait Gallery, London. Modified by cropping for use in this blog.
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