Riding / Piera

Carlos Piera suggests that that word "yo" in lyric poetry has little to do with the function of the word "yo" [I] in its "usos familiares." His example is a poem by Laura Riding:

First I was a woman, and I feigned.
Then I was yourselves, and I fooled.
Then I was a spirit, and I subtilized.


Now I am not, utterly am not.