“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Introduction

• 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 Song of Wandering Aengus” Summary

• The speaker remembers going out to a wood full of hazel trees because he felt some burning passion. The speaker cut and peeled a hazel branch, tied a thread to it as a fishing line, and then baited the thread with a hook and berry. As white moths fluttered around him and stars, flickering like moths, faded in the morning sky, the speaker fished in a stream and caught a small silver trout.

  Once the speaker had placed the fish on the floor at home, he went to make a fire. Suddenly, the fish moved on the floor and called his name. It had turned into a shining girl wearing apple blossoms in her hair. She called the speaker's name, ran away, and disappeared into the dawn.

  Although the speaker has grown old while searching unsuccessfully, wandering through lowlands and highlands, he still believes he will find the girl. He imagines kissing her, holding her hands, and walking through long, sunlight-sprinkled grass with her. He imagines them eternally plucking each night's moon like a silver apple and each day's sun like a golden apple (that is, being together forever and having a delicious time).

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Themes

• 

  Infatuation, Beauty, and Obsession

  “The Song of Wandering Aengus” is a poem about the magic and dangers of infatuation. Its speaker, Aengus, catches an enchanted fish that turns into a beautiful young woman who calls Aengus’s name and then runs away. The smitten Aengus tries, and fails, for years to find her. Despite the fact that Aengus’s infatuated search seems, in some ways, to waste his life, he confidently dreams of a passionate reunion even into old age. The poem thus depicts the search for love and beauty with equal parts warning and celebration, showing how it can become both a fruitless obsession and a dream that keeps people going.

  Aengus goes out fishing at night to seek relief from some unnamed inner turmoil: “a fire [that] was in my head.” But the girl’s arrival brings the opposite of relief: the glimpse of beauty and the mere potential for love (as opposed to love itself) pushes Aengus to direct all his energies into an obsessive search. The poem thus speaks the intense allure of love and beauty.

  On one level, Aengus’s search seems to fritter his life away, illustrating how passion can be not only irrational but also destructive. He devotes his life to pursuing this girl/fish, even though she’s only “called [him] by [his] name,” not given any sign of affection. In fact, since the girl magically appears, then “fade[s]” just as quickly, she may well be an illusion! Even so, he grows “old with wandering” after her, losing his life—and his life’s direction—without gaining anything in return.

  At the same time, however, his seemingly futile quest keeps feeding his imagination, suggesting a paradox at the heart of passion: it can somehow be both unfulfilling and sustaining. Aengus remains confident that he’ll find his beloved—that he'll get his hands on love and beauty—even if his confidence stems purely from his obsession. He starts out fishing and ends up vowing to pick the “apples” of the sun and moon, so he never actually gets the food (or love) he seeks. And yet, his quest alone seems to nourish him; his final vision of a romantic reunion suggests that he’s carried the energy and passion of his youth into old age.

  It's worth noting that Yeats isn't necessarily talking only about romantic love in this poem. Aengus is a god of youth and love in Irish mythology, and Celtic myth associates hazel (the wood of his fishing pole) with inspiration and divination. Thus, the poem’s hero seems less an average guy with mundane motives than a mythical figure on a symbolic journey.

  Since Aengus's quest draws from the symbolic realm of myth and fable, it allows for many interpretations. It could represent any kind of boundless, one-sided passion—such as an artist’s passion for art, or, more specifically, the poet's deep longing to find beauty through the written word. In any case, the poem finds both beauty and sadness in the lifelong pursuit of romantic dreams—even those that turn out to be mirages.

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

• Lines 1-4

  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;

  The poem begins with a combination of straightforward style and mysterious content. It's a dramatic monologue, meaning that the speaker is a fictional character. The title identifies this character as "Aengus" (an ancient Irish god of youth, love, summer, and poetic inspiration).

  In these opening lines, Aengus recalls going out into a "hazel wood" (in other words, a forest full of hazel trees) and making a simple fishing pole out of a branch, thread, and a berry. He speaks in a plain, direct manner, as if his actions were perfectly natural—but right away, his motives are perplexing. His only explanation for going out fishing raises more questions than it answers: "Because a fire was in my head."

  This "fire" seems to symbolize some overwhelming passion or desire, and it might suggest that Aengus is a person driven by irrational impulses. (The poem's original title, "A Mad Song," may be a clue here.) Fire is often associated with romantic passion in particular, and fishing is associated with searches for romance (as when people say that someone's "a catch" or that "there are plenty of fish in the sea"). Even that "hazel wand" might be a phallic symbol! All these symbolic hints pay off in subsequent lines, as Aengus "catches" the girl of his dreams—only to watch her run away.

  These first four lines establish the poem's iambic tetrameter pattern (meaning each line has four iambic feet in a row: da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM). In fact, they follow this meter without any significant variations:

  I went | out to | the ha- | zel wood,
  Because | a fire | was in | my head,
  And cut | and peeled | a ha- | zel wand,
  And hooked | a ber- | ry to | a thread;

  (It's possible to read "out" in line 1 as a stressed syllable, but this slight variation doesn't affect the rhythm much.) Many of the metrically stressed syllables are further emphasized by alliteration, as in the words "went"/"wood"/"wand" and "hazel"/"head"/"hazel"/"hooked."

  The meter will remain extremely regular throughout the poem; the lines fall into an even, sing-song rhythm (remember, this is a "Song"), uninterrupted by caesuras. The steady beat mimics the steady forward motion of Aengus, who, as the reader soon learns, has been "wandering" the earth in search of his lost love. The relentless drive of the meter helps evoke his persistence and obsession.

• Lines 5-8

  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.

  

  

• Lines 9-12

  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:

  

  

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• 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.

  

  

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• 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;

  

  

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• 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.

  

  

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“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Symbols

• 

  Hazel

  Hazel is an important, though slightly obscure, symbol in "The Song of Wandering Aengus." In the Celtic tradition (which Yeats knew well and drew on for this poem), hazel trees were sacred and associated with wisdom, divination of omens, and poetic inspiration.

  By going out to the "hazel wood" and fishing with a "hazel wand," then, Aengus may be seeking something more than a fish supper. Symbolically, he may be preparing to receive some sort of inspiration or omen about the future. Whether he knows it or not, he's also craving love. The "sign" or "inspiration" he receives comes in the form of a magical, elusive girl, whose appearance (and disappearance) does in fact dictate the rest of his life.

  What about wisdom? Arguably, the girl's disappearance teaches him a hard lesson, but by the end of the poem, it's not clear that he's really learned it! He's still pursuing her as avidly as before.

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• 

  Fire

  Fire in the poem is symbolically linked with passion, impulse, and desire. Aengus's explanation for going out into the woods at night is that "a fire was in my head." This doesn't convey much on the literal level, so the reader's forced to read it symbolically: he felt some impulsive passion, perhaps related to romantic desire.

  When he's back at home, the fish he catches turns into an enchanting girl just as he's about to "blow the fire a-flame." In this way, the poem further associates fire with passion and romance. The fact that her appearance interrupts his fire-making also evokes the theme of thwarted passion. Aengus may feel a fire "in [his] head," but he isn't warmed by an actual blaze, and he seems to leave his hearth forever in a fruitless search for love. Thus, fire imagery helps the poem illustrate the difference between desire in the imagination and desire consummated in reality.

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• 

  Silver Trout

  There's symbolism in the fact that Aengus's beloved starts the poem as a fish. His fishing trip itself symbolizes a search for love (as it does in a popular expression like "plenty of fish in the sea"). Fish are also known for being slippery and elusive—and the girl this fish turns into proves especially elusive!

  The trout's "silver" color gives it a precious, beautiful, enchanted quality, reflected in the magical "glimmering" of the girl it becomes. Silver also links the trout with the "silver apples of the moon" at the end of the poem. The color silver, then, links this fish/girl with the night, and perhaps even with dreams (the kind that "fade" in the "brightening air" of dawn).

  Finally, both the "silver trout" and "silver apples" are images of food—which Aengus pursues but never obtains (leaving him literally hungry and figuratively love-hungry).

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• 

  Apples

  Apples carry a great deal of mythic and religious symbolism that's relevant to this poem. Broadly speaking, they represent nourishment and romantic fulfillment.

  In line 14, the fish-turned-girl wears "apple blossom in her hair." Apple blossom is the flower of the apple tree, and in the Celtic tradition that Yeats often drew from, it's the flower that brides wear in their hair. This detail suggests, then, that the magical girl holds the promise of love. (Even if the promise proves false.)

  Apples return at the end of the poem in an image of the moon and sun:

  And pluck till time and times are done,
  The silver apples of the moon,
  The golden apples of the sun.

  On the simplest level, this image symbolizes "seizing the days" (and nights). Aengus is imagining his reunion with the girl as a kind of delicious eternal feast.

  "Silver" also echoes "silver trout" in line 8. Both the silver trout and the silver apples are products of the night (the fish's scales may be silver because they reflect the moonlight); both have an enchanting, dreamlike quality; and both (like love itself) seem to elude Aengus no matter how much he craves and pursues them.

  Meanwhile, "golden apples" feature in many ancient legends:

  • In one Greek myth, a golden apple distracts the hunter Atalanta during a footrace;
  • In another, it's a prize "for the fairest" (most beautiful) goddess, which causes discord among three competitors;
  • In another, Hercules steals the Golden Apples of the Hesperides (goddess of the sunset) as one of the seemingly impossible challenges he's tasked with.
  • Golden apples also feature in Irish myth. In one story, for example, they grow on a magical silver branch that plays soothing music and makes people forget their troubles.

  Aengus's dream of plucking "golden apples"—which is really a dream of romantic fulfillment—thus suggests all sorts of symbolic possibilities. It distracts him from other pursuits; relates to beauty; represents a challenge or quest; makes him forget everything but the quest, and so on.

  Finally, apples are associated with the biblical story of Eden: that is, with paradise and the expulsion from paradise. By eating the forbidden apple from the Tree of Knowledge (an act symbolically linked with sex, a.k.a. carnal knowledge), Adam and Eve defied God's will and got banned from the Garden of Eden. Poor Aengus imagines spending eternity with his beloved in a kind of romantic paradise, but it's not clear that he'll ever get there.

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

• Repetition

  The poem packs a striking amount of repetition—especially parallel phrasing and repeated images—into just 24 lines. This effect adds to the hypnotic quality of the verse and the spellbinding quality of the tale it tells.

  In the first stanza alone, three major images are mentioned twice:

  I went out to the hazel wood,
  [...]
  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

  Combined with the steady rhythm of the verse and the anaphora of "And" at the beginning of lines 3-6, the repetition of "hazel," "berry," and "moth[s]" makes this "Song" sound almost like an incantation or spell. Even the apparently singular word "fire" in the second line will soon return in the second line of the next stanza.

  The second stanza contains several similar repetitions: "floor" in lines 9 and 11 (also an identical rhyme), "called me by my name" in lines 12 and 15, and "something"/"someone" in lines 11 and 12. (Here, the shift from something to someone indicates the fish's transformation into a human.)

  Along with more anaphora of the word "And" in lines 20-22, the third stanza contains two mentions of "lands," the parallel phrases "kiss her lips" and "take her hands," the near-identical "time" and "times," and the parallel phrasing "The ___ apples of the ___" in the final lines. ("Apples" also echoes the "apple blossom" in line 14, while "silver" in line 23 echoes "silver" in line 8.)

  The speaker seems almost compulsively drawn to pairings of words and phrases—fittingly enough, since he hopes to find and pair off with the girl of his dreams. Ironically, though, in this poem full of pairs, Aengus remains alone!

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• Parallelism

  

  
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• Anaphora

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

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• Juxtaposition

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

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"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.

• Hazel
• On the wing
• A-flame
• Rustled
• Glimmering
• Apple blossom
• Dappled

• A small tree or shrub in the birch family, or the wood from same. Can also refer to a light brown color characteristic of this wood.

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

• Form

  "The Song of Wandering Aengus" is a ballad in three octaves (a.k.a. eight-line stanzas). Each of these octaves can be subdivided into two quatrains (four-line stanzas) rhymed ABCB.

  Through the ballad form, the poem delivers on the "Song" promised in its title. Historically, poetic ballads were composed to be sung with musical accompaniment. While Yeats's poem was written primarily for the page, it has, in fact, been set to music and adapted as a folk song. Its verse is exceptionally smooth and regular, containing very few metrical variations, no imperfect rhymes, and no caesuras. This regularity makes the poem easy to memorize, recite, and sing. It also evokes the steadiness, or obsessiveness, of Aengus's search; it's as if the verse is driving him—and the reader—relentlessly along.

• Meter

  The poem is written in very smooth iambic tetrameter. In this meter, each line contains four iambs (metrical feet consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable), resulting in eight syllables total. As an example, here's the meter in lines 1-2:

  I went | out to | the ha- | zel wood,
  Because | a fire | was in | my head,

  (For metrical purposes, "fire" conventionally counts as one syllable, not two.)

  Almost all metrical poems contain some variations in the meter, but this poem contains remarkably few. The first noticeable variation doesn't come until line 5, which features two stressed syllables ("white moths") in the second foot:

  And when | white moths | were on | the wing,

  But this variation doesn't disrupt the poem's flow all that much, and in general, the rhythm remains extremely steady throughout.

  This steadiness is a fitting choice for the poem's subject: an obsessive wanderer who keeps searching for his beloved no matter what. The meter almost gains a march-like quality, propelling Aengus (and the reader) forward at a constant pace.

  It might also suggest a particular reading of line 19, where natural speech rhythm might ordinarily stress "I," "find," and "out" ("I will find out"), but where the meter invites a strong emphasis on "will" ("I will find out"). That emphasis would certainly match Aengus's willful determination!

• Rhyme Scheme

  The poem consists of three octaves (eight-line stanzas), each of which can be divided into two quatrains in which the second and fourth lines rhyme. The basic rhyme scheme for each stanza, then, is:

  ABCBDEFE

  The only slight variation in this scheme comes in the opening lines of the second stanza, where there's an identical rhyme ("floor"/"floor") between the first and third lines along with the expected full rhyme between the second and fourth.

  All the rhymes in the poem are full rhymes (including the one identical rhyme). That is, there are no slant or imperfect rhymes. The regularity of the rhyming matches the smoothness of the verse in general, which contains few metrical variations and no caesuras. The resulting steady sound reflects the steadiness of Aengus's lifelong quest. At times it's almost too steady—as if the spellbound Aengus is trapped within the poem's form just as he's driven to wander the earth.

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Speaker

• The poem is a dramatic monologue in the voice of Aengus, an ancient Irish god of love, youth, and poetic inspiration. Yeats was an Irish poet who often creatively adapted Irish and Celtic mythology in his work. Here, he drew loosely on existing stories to turn Aengus into a figure of vivid imagination and obsessive passion—themes that often recurred in his other work as well.

  On the surface, the poem doesn't provide much detail about Aengus. He goes to the woods at night to fish, inspired by a burning passion ("a fire [...] in my head") that he doesn't explain. He catches a fish that magically turns into a beautiful girl, then spends the rest of his life searching for that girl. Given how suddenly the girl appears and disappears, she may well be an illusion or hallucination. Even so, Aengus is the kind of dreamer who's determined to chase love and beauty—or the illusion of those things—long past the point of reason. (The poem's original title was "A Mad Song," a hint that Aengus isn't entirely rational.)

  By the end, Aengus's quest doesn't really make any sense; he's an old man now, so even if he found the "girl" (or the woman who was once a girl), how could he enjoy the days and nights with her forever? He seems to have committed himself to pure fantasy. Thus, his "Song" is often read as a tale of unrequited love, or romantic obsession, or as an allegory for other kinds of one-sided passion (such as a poet's passion for language).

  Again, these themes were close to Yeats's heart. In real life, he experienced an infamous, decades-long, unrequited love for his friend Maud Gonne, who rejected his marriage proposals more than once. Some of his poems also speak of poetry as a kind of long, frustrating quest. In other words, Aengus may not literally be Yeats, but in many ways, he reflects Yeats's personality.

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Setting

• The poem has a rustic, timeless setting. It seems to take place more in a mythical landscape than a real one (especially because its hero, Aengus, is a god in Irish myth).

  The specific features Aengus mentions include a "hazel wood" (forest full of hazel trees), a "stream" with "trout" in it, and some sort of shelter or dwelling, probably a very simple one. Aengus may not even have furniture—he places the fish he's caught on the "floor" rather than a counter or table—but he does seem to have a hearth in which to build a "fire." The mentions of "a berry" and "apple blossom" add to the rustic atmosphere.

  By the third stanza, Aengus seems to have left his hearth for good, trading home for "wandering." He roams through the countryside, over valleys and peaks ("hollow lands and hilly lands"), in search of his lost love. The landscape he describes at the very end may be one of sheer fantasy: he imagines walking through "long dappled grass" with the girl of his dreams, somehow plucking the "apples" of the "moon" and "sun." The mythic, blissful quality of this setting might suggest that it's Aengus's vision of paradise.

Literary and Historical Context of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

• Literary Context

  Yeats published this poem as a fairly young man: he was 32 when it first appeared in the journal The Sketch (1897) and 34 when it appeared in his collection The Wind Among the Reeds (1899). But it contains subjects and elements that defined his whole career, including Irish tradition, thwarted or doomed passion, and mystical inspiration.

  The "Song" is not only a ballad but also a dramatic monologue: that is, its speaker is a fictional persona rather than Yeats himself. Specifically, the speaker is Aengus, a god of youth, love, and poetic inspiration in Irish mythology. (The name is sometimes spelled "Óengus.")

  Yeats claimed to have based the poem on both "a Greek folk song" and Irish folklore, and scholars have noted its parallels both with the Greek folk song "The Fruit of the Apple Tree" and the mythological tale "The Dream of Óengus" (which involves a beautiful girl who visits Óengus/Aengus in a dream, then vanishes). In general, many folk songs in the ballad tradition involve tragic love, ill-fated quests, and the like.

  Aengus's story contains parallels with Yeats's own epic The Wanderings of Oisin (1889), which similarly features a legendary, "wandering" Irish hero associated with poetry and a dramatic transition from youth to age. As an old man fated, or cursed, to wander the earth, Yeats's Aengus also has some similarities with the Ancient Mariner in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798). Unlike the Mariner, however, Aengus seems to remain cheerful and optimistic; if he's cursed, he doesn't know it!

  The poem's central theme—persistent, unrequited love—was a central theme of Yeats's poetry as a whole. His decades-long passion for his friend Maud Gonne is one of the most notorious cases of unrequited love in literary history. Yeats unsuccessfully proposed marriage to Gonne four times—and, in old age, proposed unsuccessfully to her daughter. He also wrote many famous poems that channeled his obsession and frustration, including "When You Are Old," "No Second Troy," and "Adam's Curse." On one level, then, "The Song of Wandering Aengus" dramatizes this same frustration. By the time he wrote it, Gonne had already turned down his first proposal (and yet, like Aengus, he hadn't given up).

  The poem can also be read as a symbolic tale about other kinds of one-sided passion or lifelong striving. Since Aengus was a god of poetic inspiration, some critics have interpreted the "Song" as reflecting Yeats's feelings about poetry, which he portrays elsewhere (e.g., in "Adam's Curse") as an exhausting struggle.

  Finally, the poem's mystical/magical elements reflect Yeats's longtime interest in mysticism, visions, and the occult. He even wrote an entire book on the subject: A Vision (1925).

  Historical Context

  W. B. Yeats is generally considered the most influential Irish poet in modern history. He was the central figure of the Irish Literary Revival, a.k.a. the Celtic Twilight, a movement that brought renewed attention to Ireland's literature, culture, and Gaelic heritage during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

  During this period, Yeats based many notable works on Irish and Celtic myth and legend, including his epic poem The Wanderings of Oisin (1889), his play The Countess Kathleen (1892), and lyric poems such as "The Song of Wandering Aengus." Other key figures of the Revival included the playwright and theater manager Lady Gregory and the playwright and poet John Millington Synge.

  The Revival developed during a tumultuous period in Ireland. It was associated with the Irish nationalist movement that sought Ireland's independence from the United Kingdom. Through a combination of literature and activism, the writers of this movement hoped to raise Irish national consciousness—that is, encourage Ireland to see itself as a cohesive, potentially self-governing people with a rich cultural tradition.

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

  • Byzantium

  • Easter, 1916

  • He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

  • 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

  • To a Shade

  • When You Are Old