“Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny. I am looped in the loops of her hair.”

I first heard this poem watching the film ‘Must Love Dogs’ in a hotel in Asahikawa, a city in the Northern part of Japan on the island of Hokkaido. It was a recitation by Christopher Plummer, who did it so well I was driven to seek it out upon my return the U.K. The poem is by an Irishman born in the 19th Century named William Butler Yeats. While the words alone are full of intensity, I’ve uploaded the recitation by Christopher Plummer from the film in addition. If not by just reading yourself, perhaps hearing his voice you may be moved to thought as much as I was. Anyway, without further ado:

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.

Brown Penny – William Butler Yeats

Download recitation by Christopher Plummer