only an unreal desire The poems in The Rose and The Wind Among the Reeds show this mystical tone The women in these poems are fairy-like and far away from the real world Love for Maud Gonne When Yeats met Maud Gonne his poetry found its living subject He was twenty-three when he first saw her and he loved her for life She was tall beautiful and proud She became the symbol of beauty passion and Ireland itself His love for her was full of devotion and admiration In He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven he says I have spread my dreams under your feet Tread softly because you tread on my dreams These lines show his humble love and worshipful heart Though Maud never accepted his love her image appears again and again in his verses Pain and Disillusionment Maud Gonne s refusal and later marriage to John MacBride broke Yeats s heart His later love poems became full of sadness and frustration The poet could not forget her but his love turned into a spiritual struggle In No Second Troy he asks Why should I blame her that she filled my days with misery He compares her to Helen of Troy whose beauty caused war and destruction Her beauty was like a tightened bow noble yet dangerous This poem shows his sense of loss and admiration together Memory and Ideal Love Even in his later life Yeats remembered Maud Gonne with deep affection In Among School Children he imagines her as a young girl and compares her to a mythic figure He says I dream of a Ledaean body bent above a sinking fire Here Maud is joined with the image of Leda mother of Helen Yeats looks at schoolchildren and wonders if she was ever like them The poem ends with the famous question How can we know the dancer from the dance It means that art and love have become one Through memory Yeats turns love into a spiritual and artistic vision Transformation of Love Yeats s love changes from personal desire to universal truth In the beginning it was romantic and passionate Later it became thoughtful and symbolic He expresses not only love for Maud but also the pain of humanity His love poems are rich in music emotion and symbolism Even in A Prayer for My Daughter written many years later Maud s shadow appears He prays that his daughter may not be proud and restless like Maud Gonne Thus love remains the heart of his poetry In termination Yeats s poetry of love begins with dreams and ends with wisdom His unrequited love for Maud Gonne gave him both inspiration and sorrow Through love he discovered the beauty and tragedy of human life Therefore Yeats stands among the most significant love poets in the English literary tradition