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Brown Penny

Brown Penny
William Butler Yeats

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.

O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.

2 comments:

The contrast between Jacques Prévert in the previous entry and Yeats in this one is like night and day.

Yeat's "The Falling Of The Leaves" might go well with "Les Feuilles Mortes". I vaguely remember his poem about a Peacock - I had to memorize it in school but no longer remember much of it.

I think I have a picture of Yeat's gravestone - I know I saw it.

January 29, 2009 at 5:23 PM  

I know...but I love this poem, I too had to memorize a poem in school. Brown Penny was I one I had to recite, in front of a hord of children...Can you say YIKES!


Ohhh, I want to see that picture!

January 29, 2009 at 6:45 PM  

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