Yeats’s speaker tells a young girl that he understands her racing heart more deeply than anyone else—even more than her own mother. The reason lies in his past: he loved the girl’s mother, and he remembers the “wild thought” that once set the older woman’s blood astir and made her eyes glitter. Now the mother denies that feeling and has forgotten it, but the speaker has not. Looking at the girl, he recognizes the same youthful passion and longing returning. He is not scolding or warning her; he is quietly naming what she feels, with the insight of someone who has already been hurt by that very force. The mood is intimate, melancholy, and a little unsettling, as past and present seem to repeat each other in the girl’s heartbeat.
To a Young Girl — Summary
My dear, my dear, I know More than another What makes your heart beat so; Not even your own mother Can know it as I know, Who broke my heart for her When the wild thought, That she denies And has forgot, Set all her blood astir And glittered in her eyes.