A First Confession

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1929from The Winding Stair and Other Poems18 lines

I admit the briarEntangled in my hairDid not injure me;My blenching and tremblingNothing but dissembling,Nothing but coquetry.

I long for truth, and yetI cannot stay from thatMy better self disowns,For a man’s attentionBrings such satisfactionTo the craving in my bones.

Brightness that I pull backFrom the Zodiac,Why those questioning eyesThat are fixed upon me?What can they do but shun meIf empty night replies?

Text: The Winding Stair and Other Poems (Macmillan, London, 1933). Public domain.

In brief

Summary

A young woman admits her flirting, and wonders what lies beyond it.

A young woman confesses a small deceit. When a briar caught her hair and she trembled, she was not hurt: it was "coquetry", a performance for a man. In the second stanza she admits that she longs for truth yet cannot resist the pleasure of male attention, which satisfies "the craving in my bones". The last stanza turns stranger. She speaks to a brightness she draws down from the Zodiac and asks why those questioning eyes watch her, since they can only turn away if "empty night replies".

Lines to remember

To the craving in my bones.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 6The briar
She admits the briar tangled in her hair "Did not injure me". Her "blenching and trembling" were put on to catch a man's attention, and the repeated "Nothing but" has the ring of a real confession.
Lines 7 to 12Longing for truth
She longs for truth but cannot keep away from what "My better self disowns". The reason is simple and frank: a man's attention brings satisfaction "To the craving in my bones".
Lines 13 to 18Questioning eyes
The last stanza is harder. She addresses a "Brightness" she pulls back "From the Zodiac", perhaps the starry, heavenly part of herself, and asks why its questioning eyes are fixed on her. They can only shun her, she says, if "empty night replies".

Themes

Truth and pretence

The poem is a confession, and what it confesses is pretending. She admits her trembling was "dissembling" and names her motive plainly. The frankness is part of her charm: she deceives men, but here she deceives neither herself nor the reader.

Body and spirit

She longs "for truth" but is ruled by "the craving in my bones". The last stanza raises the stakes, bringing in the Zodiac and "empty night". Earthly flirtation is set against a deeper question: whether anything answers from the heavens at all.

Context

This is the third poem of "A Woman Young and Old", first published in The Winding Stair (New York, 1929) and collected in The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933). The woman is now young and courted. The Zodiac returns later in the sequence, in "Chosen", where it becomes an image of lovers made one.

Form

Three six-line stanzas of short lines, rhymed AABCCB ("briar" and "hair", "trembling" and "dissembling", "me" and "coquetry"). The paired rhymes give the confession a light, quick, almost playful sound, which makes the darker final stanza more surprising.