PoemA Last Confession
Author / PoetWilliam Butler Yeats
TagsConfession, Redemption, Reflection, Regret

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.

William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
13 Jun 1865 - 28 Jan 1939
Region: Irish, Northern Europe
Period: Modernist
Movement: Irish Literary Revival, Symbolism
Awards: Nobel Prize in Literature

more poems by William Butler Yeats

Poem NameTopic
Summer And SpringOld, Spring, Summer
The Ballad Of Father GilliganForgive
The Empty CupOld, Young
The Death Of The HareDeath, Old, Wildness
The Friends Of His YouthOld, Pride, Young
The Lake Isle Of InnisfreeLake
The MermaidHappiness, Lovers, Mermaid
The Secrets Of The OldOld, Young
The Stolen ChildChild, Stolen
The Wild Swans At CooleBeauty, Twilight, Wing

all poems by William Butler Yeats

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