Mythology & Folklore

The Song of Wandering Aengus

by W. B. Yeats 1865–1939

From The Wind Among the Reeds (1899)

Mythology & FolkloreLove

I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

✦ ✦ ✦

A wanderer catches a silver trout from a hazel stream, which becomes a glimmering girl who calls his name and vanishes. He grows old looking for her and the 'silver apples of the moon, the golden apples of the sun'.

MLA

Yeats, W. B. “The Song of Wandering Aengus.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/10/.

Chicago

Yeats, W. B. “The Song of Wandering Aengus.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/yeats/10/.

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