What lively lad most pleasured me
Of all that with me lay?
I answer that I gave my soul
And loved in misery,
But had great pleasure with a lad
That I loved bodily.
Flinging from his arms I laughed
To think his passion such
He fancied that I gave a soul
Did but our bodies touch,
And laughed upon his breast to think
Beast gave beast as much.
I gave what other women gave
That stepped out of their clothes.
But when this soul, its body off,
Naked to naked goes,
He it has found shall find therein
What none other knows,
And give his own and take his own
And rule in his own right;
And though it loved in misery
Close and cling so tight,
There's not a bird of day that dare
Extinguish that delight.
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Yeats' "A Last Confession"
From guest Dorothy Walters (contact)
This poem appears in a section entitled "A Woman Old and New". Yeats is obviously writing from the perspective of a female, not in his own voice. Thus the poem does not reveal homosexuality, but is rather an imaginative recreation of that woman's musings. -
At first, I agreed with Smith: I thought Yeats was announcing some type of homosexuality inside of himself. But, the first line of the third stanza changed my mind. The word "other" seemed, to me, to insinuate that he was indeed righting from a female's perspective. I like the change of view.
~Jessica -
bewildering
I'm not experienced at critiquing, but me thinks that Yeats' poem is a confession (hence the title) that he is a homosexual. In other words, he is coming out of the closet. However, this is a premature judgment on my behalf, since I am not educated yet on the life of Yeats. Did Yeats have a family? -
It must be fairly difficult to write from the perspective of the opposite sex, something Yeats has grasped well in this piece.
The intense and concise words really embody this piece with a passion.
Andrew
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