Brown Penny

W. B. Yeatsfirst published 1910from The Green Helmet and Other Poems16 lines

Earlier titled "The Young Man's Song"

I whispered, “I am too young.”And then, “I am old enough”;Wherefore I threw a pennyTo 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.

Oh, love is the crooked thing,There is nobody wise enoughTo find out all that is in it,For he would be thinking of loveTill the stars had run away,And the shadows eaten the moon.Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,One cannot begin it too soon.

Text: Poetry, by W. B. Yeats (Standard Ebooks, 2024), from the collected editions of 1908 to 1928. Public domain.

In brief

Summary

A young man tosses a penny to decide whether to fall in love.

A young man cannot decide whether he is ready for love: first he is "too young", then "old enough". So he tosses a brown penny, and it tells him to "Go and love", as long as the lady is "young and fair". By the end of the first stanza he is already caught, "looped in the loops of her hair". The second stanza reflects that love is "the crooked thing" that nobody is wise enough to understand, since you could think about it until the stars ran away. The advice is to begin at once.

Lines to remember

Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,

Oh, love is the crooked thing,

One cannot begin it too soon.

Line by line

Lines 1 to 4Heads or tails
The young man argues with himself in whispers: "I am too young", then "I am old enough". Unable to settle it, he throws a penny, turning the biggest decision of youth into a game of chance.
Lines 5 to 8Looped in her hair
The penny answers in a sing-song voice: "Go and love, go and love, young man", provided the lady is "young and fair". The refrain "Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny" follows, and he is already caught, "looped in the loops of her hair".
Lines 9 to 14The crooked thing
Now a wiser voice: "love is the crooked thing", twisting and hard to follow. Nobody could find out all that is in it, because he would go on thinking of love "Till the stars had run away" and the shadows had eaten the moon.
Lines 15 to 16Never too soon
The refrain returns with a new conclusion: "One cannot begin it too soon." Since love can never be fully understood, there is no point waiting to be wise enough. Better to start now.

Themes

Youth and love

The poem catches the moment of choosing to love. The young man sways between "too young" and "old enough", then leaps. The playful refrain and the image of being "looped in the loops of her hair" make love a sweet trap, entered willingly and with a laugh.

Chance and wisdom

Tossing a penny is the opposite of careful thought, and the poem approves. "There is nobody wise enough" to understand love, so waiting for wisdom is pointless. The coin, not reason, gives the right answer: "One cannot begin it too soon." The lightness hides a serious point about how little we can know before we act.

Context

The poem closes The Green Helmet and Other Poems (Cuala Press, 1910), where it was called "The Young Man's Song"; it kept that title in 1916 before becoming "Brown Penny". Its light, singing manner stands out in a book otherwise full of weary and bitter poems about public life, and it recalls early lyrics such as "Down by the Salley Gardens".

Form

Two eight-line stanzas of short three-beat lines with a lilting, song-like rhythm. The rhyme is loose ("enough" and "love" only half chime), but "fair" and "hair", "moon" and "soon" ring clearly. The refrain "Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny" at line 7 of each stanza gives the poem the feel of a folk song or a children's rhyme.

Titled 'The Young Man's Song' in 1910 and 1916.