It is a bit Yeatsian then innit? Like most good poems it works on more than one level. On the surface it's a story of unrequited love. The poet falls in love with a beautiful woman who is a bit of a philistine and is unmoved by the poems and songs he dedicates to her. She is an unwilling/unresponsive muse. On a deeper level it's about the inability for the carnal and the spiritual to coexist. Probably Paddy was a good Catholic boy at one time. Like Balzac said after a night in the brothel, "Alas, there goes another masterpiece!"
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