Maud Gonne (b. December 21 1866-d. April 27 1953) was William Butler Yeats’ muse. Ever since he had met Maud Gonne, he was writing poetry about her. There is nothing that exemplifies his love for her more that the volume In The Seven Woods. The volume was made specifically for her initially because many of the poems are nearly directly about her. For example, look at poems “Never give all the Heart,” “The Folly of Being Comforted,” and “O do not Love Too Long.” All of the poems are negative responses to romance and love—Yeats at this time was heavily focused on anti-romanticism. Gonne’s activism and political esteem were some of the things that attracted Yeats. She was many things; an Irish patriot; a feminist; a founder of the Sinn Féin; and a founder of the Daughters of Ireland (and more). She was an extraordinary woman and is exactly the reason why she was so imperative to his writing this volume. There are ways to read the volume while dissociating from the context of Gonne, but it is important to know the context of why his poems are so negative.

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   After many years of attempted courtship, Maud Gonne decided to become Maud MacBride instead of Maud Yeats. It was 1903 when Gonne married John MacBride, an Irish nationalist. Yeats disagreed her marriage to MacBride and took an extremely negative stance to the idea of love while also attempting to still court Gonne. His attempt was the volume that has been presented for you. Initially, the volume was intended for Gonne and only Gonne. The original manuscript was carefully crafted by Yeats himself and directly addressed as well as delivered to Gonne. The volume made none the difference (which may account for the many different reiterations of the volume), but it still carries strong poems about the jests of love.

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   It is also important to understand that before Gonne’s marriage to MacBride, she engaged in what Yeats called a spiritual marriage or union. He believed that they inherently communicated their love via the spirit or the soul. Basically, they were soulmates in his opinion. Whether or not they are soulmate material is up for debate, but Gonne did have an extremely close relationship with Yeats for most of their lives. Though their love was never physically solidified, it still motivated and inspired Yeats to write an entire volume dedicated to her. Gonne was quite the persona and therefore it is understandable her rejection was astoundingly heartbreaking. Her continued attempt at friendship, however, is the reason Yeats has written some of the poetry he has. Her influence on his poetry, as well as his plays (look at The Original Volume), is barely able to be explained, She, and Augusta Gregory, had some of the strongest impacts on Yeats’ life as well as poetry.