Personal anthology: W. B. Yeats

By on February 17th, 2007

I’m short of post ideas today. So, an old favorite:

Brown Penny

I whispered, "I am too young,"
And then, "I am old enough";
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
"Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair."
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.

And the penny sang up in my face,
"There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
That is looped in the loops of her hair,
Till the loops of time had run."
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.

— William Butler Yeats

(There’s also an earlier version whose second stanza begins "O love is the crooked thing, / There is nobody wise enough…", and, though I rather regret the loss of that line about love being the crooked thing — because really, it is, isn’t it? — I love the gain of "Till the loops of time had run.")

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