Brown Penny
Brown Penny - context Summary
Published in 1903
Written for Yeats’s 1903 collection In the Seven Woods, "Brown Penny" frames a playful meditation on deciding to love. The speaker consults a tossed penny and, reassured, surrenders to affection while acknowledging love’s paradox: irresistible yet unknowable. The poem balances light, conversational voice with a cautious moral—love cannot be fully understood and should not be postponed—reflecting Yeats’s interest in fable-like wisdom and emotional readiness.
Read Complete AnalysesI 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.
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