Lyrical Thursdays: Brown Penny

Since I missed a week last month, I thought I'd make up for it with another poem about love.  It's kind of funny, because I am posting these at a time in my life when I feel these poems have little relevance to me personally.  But still, they are moving and beautiful poems, and will perhaps mean even more to me down the road.

I find this poem very enchanting in its lyricism.  I get caught up in the way Yeats uses phrasing and rhythm and a conversational style.  It brings so many images to mind: a young man reflecting on his own, an older man offering advice, a reflecting pool or wishing well, etc.  (I think this is one of the most pretentious paragraphs I have ever written...)

I've heard it recited twice via the wonderful world of cinema.  One I have included below - it's Christopher Plummer reciting it in the film "Must Love Dogs."  (The video is nicely done.)  The other, and my favorite, was on the TV show "Northern Exposure."  Chris Stevens (alias Chris in the Morning, played by John Corbett) recites it in an episode when offering advice to a kid in town.  I love the way that he says it, in the conversational way that Yeats wrote it, and the way only Chris Stevens could (that show is pretty much the best).  Sadly I couldn't find a video of Chris' recital, so I'll leave you in the capable hands of Captain Von Trapp.

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.
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. 

William Butler Yeats