ABSTRACT
The title ‘Reconciliation’ is also, in its way, a sign that normal poetic service – however transformed it may be – will now be resumed. WBY's actual measure of reconciliation by 1908 with MG is relevant to all of this. Although their relationship had long been marked by quarrels, the poet's romantic fixation on MG suffered traumatic pressure when she married John MacBride in Feb. 1903, having joined the Roman Catholic church in the process. Inevitably, this was a real break between MG and WBY; and in the shorter term, it drove WBY further into the comforts of his theatrical circles, and especially those supplied at Coole by AG. But the MG/MacBride marriage, though it produced a child, did not otherwise prosper, and WBY was fully appraised of the couple's separation – something which itself soon became matter for Irish public speculation and (in due course) partisan debate.
