the song of wandering aengus by william butler yeats

The Song of Wandering Aengus Summary & Analysis by William Butler Yeats

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

First printed in 1897 and collected in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899), W. B. Yeats's "The Song of Wandering Aengus" is a dramatic monologue about burning and thwarted passion. Written in the voice of Aengus (a god of love and youth in Irish mythology), it tells the tale of a magical fish that turns into a beautiful girl and runs away. The infatuated Aengus wanders the earth in pursuit of this girl, growing old but never giving up his search. As a kind of miniature fable, the poem suggests how unrequited love—or any other unattainable dream—can both exhaust a person's energies and nourish a person's imagination.

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The Full Text of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

1 I went out to the hazel wood,

2 Because a fire was in my head,

3 And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

4 And hooked a berry to a thread;

5 And when white moths were on the wing,

6 And moth-like stars were flickering out,

7 I dropped the berry in a stream

8 And caught a little silver trout.

9 When I had laid it on the floor

10 I went to blow the fire a-flame,

11 But something rustled on the floor,

12 And someone called me by my name:

13 It had become a glimmering girl

14 With apple blossom in her hair

15 Who called me by my name and ran

16 And faded through the brightening air.

17 Though I am old with wandering

18 Through hollow lands and hilly lands,

19 I will find out where she has gone,

20 And kiss her lips and take her hands;

21 And walk among long dappled grass,

22 And pluck till time and times are done,

23 The silver apples of the moon,

24 The golden apples of the sun.

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Summary

“the song of wandering aengus” themes.

Infatuation, Beauty, and Obsession

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

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:

Lines 13-16

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.

Lines 17-20

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;

Lines 21-24

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.

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Symbols

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Silver Trout

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

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Parallelism

Alliteration, juxtaposition, “the song of wandering aengus” vocabulary.

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• On the wing
• Apple blossom
• See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

Rhyme scheme, “the song of wandering aengus” speaker, “the song of wandering aengus” setting, literary and historical context of “the song of wandering aengus”, more “the song of wandering aengus” resources, external resources.

The Poet's Life and Work — Read a short bio of Yeats, along with other Yeats poems, at Poets.org.

The Poem Read Aloud — Hear a reading of the poem by actor Michael Gambon.

"Aengus" in Song — Listen to a 1971 adaptation of the poem by folk singer Donovan.

Yeats, Nobel Laureate — Browse an exhibit on Yeats, winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature, at Nobel.org.

The Many Sides of Yeats — Read the Poetry Foundation's introduction to the various phases of Yeats's career.

Yeats Reads His Work — Listen to a rare recording of W. B. Yeats reading his poetry aloud.

LitCharts on Other Poems by William Butler Yeats

Adam's Curse

Among School Children

An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

A Prayer for my Daughter

Easter, 1916

In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz

Lapis Lazuli

Leda and the Swan

Sailing to Byzantium

September 1913

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

The Second Coming

The Wild Swans at Coole

When You Are Old

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The Song of Wandering Aengus

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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.

This poem is in the public domain.

More by this poet

Leda and the swan.

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill, He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

A Prayer for my Daughter

Once more the storm is howling, and half hid Under this cradle-hood and coverlid My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle But Gregory's wood and one bare hill Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind, Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed; And for an hour I have walked and prayed

The Stolen Child

Where dips the rocky highland Of Sleuth Wood in the lake, There lies a leafy island Where flapping herons wake The drowsy water rats; There we've hid our faery vats, Full of berrys And of reddest stolen cherries. Come away, O human child!

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Home > Poems > The Song of Wandering Aengus

The Song of Wandering Aengus

By W. B. Yeats

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.

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Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.

The song of wandering aengus, read by maurice riordan.

by William Butler Yeats

The Song of Wandering Aengus - William Butler Yeats - Read by Maurice Riordan

Yeats remarked of his early poems that they were 'the heart's cry against necessity' - he was much preoccupied by his long unrequited love for Maude Gonne, while also immersing his imagination in the lore and mythology of Ireland. The Aengus of this poem is a Celtic god, for Yeats the god of youth, beauty and poetry, though really perhaps no more than a vehicle for the poet's own longing.

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.

Recording commissioned by the Poetry Archive, shared here with kind permission of our reader.

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The Song of Wandering Aengus

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.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1939, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 84 years or less . This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works .

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“The Song of Wandering Aengus” by W. B. Yeats

Loch Gill seen from nature trail running through Hazelwood Country Park, on the outskirts of Sligo, Ireland, and immortalized by W. B. Yeats in “The Song of Wandering Aengus.”

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"I think a kind of half ballad, half lyric ... is the kind of poem I like best myself—a ballad that gradually lifts ... from circumstantial to purely lyrical writing. ... I only learnt that slowly and used to be content to tell stories . ... One must always have lyric emotion or some revelation of beauty…" —Letter from W.B. Yeats to Dora Sigerson (1899)

Teacher guide “The Song of Wandering Aengus” by W. B. Yeats includes information about the poem and discussion questions. Supplementary documents provide contextual background on Irish traditional sources including Celtic mythology and Irish aisling poetry.

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About the Poem

Questions for discussion, questions for further discussion.

“The Song of Wandering Aengus”

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.

The Wind Among the Reeds, 1899. 4th ed. (London, 1903), 15–16. Available at Project Gutenberg .

An online version of the poem is also available on EDSITEment-reviewed Academy of American Poets.

William Butler Yeats wrote “The Song of Wandering Aengus” on January 31 sometime in the late 1890s. It was first printed in 1897 under the title "A Mad Song." The current title "The Song of Wandering Aengus" was applied when it was finally published in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899). These early collected poems displayed Yeats's mastery of the lyric form as well as his passion for Celtic mythology and Irish folklore, which were to fuel his poetic genius throughout his career.

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” is deceptively simple, yet it paints a haunting story containing many mythological allusions and nuanced levels of meaning. The speaker is an old man reminiscing about an event long ago when he was compelled to go out to cut a branch for fishing. With it, he caught a magical silver trout, which was then transformed into a vision of a “glimmering” maiden. The life-quest he set himself was to find this girl who called his name before she vanished.

In the poem, Yeats contrasts two realities: the earthly realm of ordinary life and the mystical otherworld of dreams. He wrestles with conflicting desires—the ongoing need to handle the practical things of life and the strong compulsion to follow one’s dreams. To express this conflict, Yeats employs a break in the middle of each stanza signaled by a semicolon or colon. This shift underlines the gap between the earthly, physical world and the mysterious, magical otherworld. It moves the reader from the concrete world of the particular to the abstract world of the universal.

For background on the life and work of the poet, see the EDSITEment-reviewed Poetry Foundation entry on “ W. B. Yeats ” and Stephen Watt's, “The Voice of Nationalism: One Hundred Years of Irish Theatre,” Humanities 20, no.1 (1999).

The seven questions in this worksheet can be adapted for use in a classroom discussion or literature circle and are aligned with Common Core literacy standards for grade 8. In whatever venue, make sure that students provide evidence from the poem in their answers. (See also the teacher version with suggested answers. )

• Question 5 discusses the terms below and their meanings from the EDSITEment literary glossary: assonance ; repetition ; alliteration ; consonance ; and meter .
• Question 7 references another poem about dreams also published in The Wind Among the Reeds , “ Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven .”

Five questions for further discussion are found in the accompanying worksheet . However, before delving deeper into the poem, you will need to read and discuss the information included in Traditional Irish Sources for “The Song of Wandering Aengus” with students. After reading this contextual background, the questions can be raised for discussion and/or used as a basis for writing activities. (See the teacher version with suggested answers ).

Note: Question 5 references the late 20th-century aisling by Seamus Heaney, " A Hazel Stick for Catherine Ann ,” in Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966–1996 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998), 214.

Materials & Media

Wandering aengus: worksheet 1. questions for discussion, wandering aengus: worksheet 2. questions for further discussion, wandering aengus: traditional irish sources for “the song of wandering aengus”, wandering aengus: questions for discussion (teacher version), wandering aengus: questions for further discussion (teacher version), related on edsitement, twenty-one poems for ap literature and composition, twenty-one more poems for ap english, charles baudelaire: poète maudit (the cursed poet), chinua achebe’s things fall apart.

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William Butler Yeats

The song of wandering aengus.

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 aflame, But something rustled on the floor, And some one 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 lads 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.

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The Song Of Wandering Aengus

By william butler yeats.

This poem is featured in our selection of Poetry for Students and 100 Great Poems .

Return to the William Butler Yeats library , or . . . Read the next poem; The Sorrow Of Love

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The Song of Wandering Aengus by William Butler Yeats

Calligrapher Xu Bing Chinese

Not on view

Words, books, and calligraphy form central elements of Xu’s work, which often questions the effectiveness of written communication. In this piece, Xu challenges the high-art status of calligraphy within the Chinese cultural tradition while also blurring the linguistic and cultural boundaries between East and West. Xu’s transcription does not retain Yeats’s original format of three eight-line stanzas. Instead, he has divided the poem into two sheets and recomposed the words to resemble Chinese characters. The text is read vertically (as in traditional Chinese texts) and from left to right (as in Western texts). The poem, which ends with the lines “The silver apples of the moon, / The golden apples of the sun,” is from Yeats’s 1899 collection The Wind among the Reeds and reflects his early fascination with the occult.

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Artwork Details

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Title: The Song of Wandering Aengus by William Butler Yeats

Calligrapher: Xu Bing (born 1955)

Culture: China

Medium: Pair of hanging scrolls; ink on paper

Dimensions: Image (a): 63 3/16 x 51 1/2 in. (160.5 x 130.8 cm) Image (b): 63 1/2 x 51 7/8 in. (161.3 x 131.8 cm)

Classification: Calligraphy

Credit Line: Lent by a private collection, New York

Accession Number: SL.14.2013.3.3a, b

Rights and Reproduction: © Xu Bing

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