Brown Penny
By 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.
(source)
Saw/heard this in a movie recently. Of course, I recognize full well the poser/cheese factor of posting a poem I saw/heard in a movie recently, but it’s a good poem. And it’s Yeats, so…sue me. I have to take what I can get lately, now that I have a 9-7 6-day-a-week job and have so little time for reading it makes my eyes grey and my skin green.
Movie: mediocre. Poem: memorable.
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What movie was it?
Must Love Dogs, which has been playing all week on some channel here. Only one genuinely laugh-out-loud-funny line in the whole movie, I thought, but good enough nonetheless.
Hey, welcome back to the blogosphere!
But aparently you have time for a movie…
hahaha just kiddin bro good poem…
I actually saw the movie at a friend’s house the other night. It was ok, but you’re right, the poem was memorable. “I am looped in the loops of her hair..”? What girl doesn’t love that line? You should watch “Dead Poet’s Society” if you want poetry read to you from a movie ;) I’m in the company of ELIC and loving it. We leave for China early on the 14th, I had a friend mail you the letter. Worship was incredible, super encouraging team. SO good!
Ah yes: Dead Poets Society is one my favorites. I’m glad you’re enjoying the ELIC crew – if you run into the hilarious Andy Cheeley please tell him I said hello. He interviewed me for Camp China back in the day…
I’ll tell him this afternoon.
Awesome. I wonder who else I might know there…
Aron,
I found your blog after I searched for the poem. I discovered the poem watching Must Love Dogs. Fair movie, good acting but poor direction in my opinion. I was knocked out by the poem, which was very well rendered by Christopher Plummer in his best light, romantic Irish brogue. I remain uncertain, after finding several versions online, as to the exact wording by Yeats. I have one
version which repeats the phrase, “looped in the loops of her hair”, while most don’t. Are you certain your version is correct? I asked my sone Dalton, who is a PhD student at Illinois-Champaign, who was unfamiliar with that piece. His dissertation will focus on Keats and he has not had extensive exposure with Yeats. I am a reformed high school English teacher who still enjoys a good turn of phrase but certainly no expert in poetry of any kind. Mark
yeah, Dead Poets Society is great!
“O captain, …” still vivid in my mind
this one is beautiful too,
it expressed young ppl’s perplexity for love. I think it’s cute.
‘Brown Penny’
“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.”
It is this cosmic dimension that gives the poem a touch of greatness. The expression takes you into the endless mystery of the universe to convey the nature of love and, thus, captures the transcendent, spiritual quality of love. Because of this mystery “One cannot begin too soon.”
Well said.
It’s an indication of what it is that’s truly great that this poem lifted one’s consciousness from that mediocre movie, in that 2 minute recitation, to a touch of transcendence.
At least he read it well.