A Last Confession

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1929from The Winding Stair and Other Poems24 lines

What lively lad most pleasured meOf all that with me lay?I answer that I gave my soulAnd loved in misery,But had great pleasure with a ladThat I loved bodily.

Flinging from his arms I laughedTo think his passion suchHe fancied that I gave a soulDid but our bodies touch,And laughed upon his breast to thinkBeast gave beast as much.

I gave what other women gaveThat stepped out of their clothes,But when this soul, its body off,Naked to naked goes,He it has found shall find thereinWhat none other knows,

And give his own and take his ownAnd rule in his own right;And though it loved in miseryClose and cling so tight,There’s not a bird of day that dareExtinguish that delight.

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

In brief

Summary

An old woman weighs bodily pleasure against the love that took her soul.

Asked which lover gave her most pleasure, the woman gives a double answer. She "gave my soul" to one man and "loved in misery", but had great pleasure with another whom she loved only with her body. With him she laughed, amused that he thought a soul was given whenever bodies touched: "Beast gave beast as much." In the second half she looks beyond the body. After death, when the soul goes naked to naked, her true lover will find in it what no one else knows, and they will cling so tight that no "bird of day" dare end their delight.

Lines to remember

Beast gave beast as much.

Naked to naked goes,

Line by line

Lines 1 to 6Two loves
She asks herself which "lively lad" pleased her most. Her answer divides love in two: she "gave my soul" and "loved in misery", but had "great pleasure" with a lad she "loved bodily".
Lines 7 to 12Laughing on his breast
Pulling free from that lover's arms, she laughed at his belief that she gave a soul whenever their bodies touched. To her, bodily love was simply "Beast gave beast as much": pleasant, plain and no more.
Lines 13 to 18Naked soul
She gave only what other women give when they step out of their clothes. But when the soul itself, "its body off", goes "Naked to naked", the one it finds shall discover in it "What none other knows".
Lines 19 to 24Beyond the day
The two souls will give and take and "rule in his own right". Though that love was lived in misery, they will "Close and cling so tight" that no "bird of day" dare end their joy, a glance at the dawn birds that part lovers.

Themes

Body and soul

The poem divides love cleanly. Bodily love is enjoyed, laughed at and seen for what it is: "Beast gave beast as much." Love of the soul is painful in life ("loved in misery") but will be fulfilled after death, when souls meet "Naked to naked". Neither is condemned; each has its place.

Candour

This is a "last" confession, spoken near the end of life, and it is frank. She does not pretend her bodily pleasures were spiritual, or that her great love was happy. The plain speech and teasing tone give her an old woman's hard-won freedom from pretence.

Context

This is the ninth 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 "bird of day" recalls the dawn bird of "Parting", which warned lovers to separate; here no such bird can reach them. The sequence ends with two more poems, "Meeting" and a chorus from Sophocles' Antigone.

Form

Four six-line stanzas of short ballad lines, alternating four and three beats. From the second stanza on, lines 2, 4 and 6 share a single rhyme ("such", "touch", "much"), giving the confession a song-like, almost jaunty movement at odds with its serious subject.