re: "When the angel woos..."

I offer a different take on this addmittedly unfortunate phrasing.

Angel serves as a metaphor for artists generally (specifically the author) implying a "spiritual" viewpoint. Clay represents non-artists (materialists?), those people with a more "worldly" view.
Translation:
This is the choice that Kavanagh faces.

No more correct that any other reading of poetry, that's the beauty of poetry, but it's the way I've always understood the lyric and I was dumbstruck by the realisation that there was a more obvious and far more cruel interpretation.

AndyG