the song of wandering aengus quizlet

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

Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions

• Lesson Plans
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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.”

Wikimedia Commons

"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.

On this Page:

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.

The Song of Wandering Aengus

By william butler yeats, the song of wandering aengus quiz.

• 1 The phrase "moth-like stars" is an instance of what? Metaphor Synecdoche Simile Metonymy
• 2 This poem is representative of which movement? The New York School First-generation Romanticism Postmodernism The Irish Literary Revival
• 3 The phrase "a fire was in my head" is a metaphor meaning what? That the speaker is angry That the speaker is feeling emotional and passionate That the speaker is feeling stupid That the speaker is full of brilliant ideas
• 4 What is the poem's meter? Iambic tetrameter Anapestic tetrameter Iambic pentameter Anapestic pentameter
• 5 Yeats compares the stars to which of the following? Scales Berries Lanterns Moths
• 6 How many stanzas are in the poem? 3 1 2 4
• 7 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "kiss her lips"? I K S E
• 8 The phrase "The golden apples of the sun" is an instance of what? Personification Metaphor Simile Understatement
• 9 Which best describes the poem's tone? Exhausted Didactic Despairing Hopeful
• 10 Which of the following is NOT associated with Aengus? Poetry War Love Youth
• 11 Which of the following is not a major theme of this work? Love Aging Nature Childhood
• 12 What does fire most clearly symbolize in this work? Passion Home War Danger
• 13 Which line contains alliterative G sounds? "I went to blow the fire a-flame" "It had become a glimmering girl" "And pluck till time and times are done" "And cut and peeled a hazel wand"
• 14 How long are the poem's stanzas? Six lines (sestets) Two lines (couplets) Eight lines (octaves) Four lines (quatrains)
• 15 Which of the following describes the poem's mood? Glamorous Cozy Witty Dreamlike
• 16 Which is an instance of irony? The fact that Aengus becomes more sure of his success the longer his quest takes The sudden transformation of the fish into a woman The way that the forest is a site of magical events The fact that readers know the woman will disappear before Aengus notices it
• 17 Which of the following is an instance of metonymy? "With apple blossom in her hair" "And when white moths were on the wing" "Because a fire was in my head" "Through hollow lands and hilly lands"
• 18 Which word is an instance of onomatopoeia? Dappled Peeled Trout Rustled
• 19 Who is the poem's speaker? The Irish god of love and youth An orphaned boy living in Victorian Dublin The son of W.B. Yeats's friend Augusta Gregory An Irish revolutionary assassinated by British forces
• 20 What is the poem's rhyme scheme? ABCBDEFE ABACDEDF ABBACDDE ABABAB
• 21 Where is the poem set? Ireland, in a mythical past The Tower of London A modern Irish city A ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean
• 22 Which is an example of hyperbole? The speaker's ease in using natural materials to make the fishing pole The speaker's perseverance in the face of adversity The speaker's claim that he will spend eternity with the woman The repeated evocation of the natural world
• 23 Which of the following is a motif in this work? Oranges Apples Ivy Acorns
• 24 In what year was this work published? 1881 2003 1897 1906
• 25 In which collection did this work first appear? Sailing to Byzantium Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry The Tower The Wind Among the Reeds

The Song of Wandering Aengus Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Song of Wandering Aengus is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Study Guide for The Song of Wandering Aengus

The Song of Wandering Aengus study guide contains a biography of William Butler Yeats, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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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.

The Song of Wandering Aengus

by William Butler 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.

Summary of The Song of Wandering Aengus

• Popularity of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”: William Butler Yeats, a great romantic poet, wrote ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’. It is a narrative poem about unrequited love. It was first published in 1899 in Yeats’ collection of poems, The Wind Among the Reeds . It speaks about a man who goes out in search of peace. It also reflects his quest to find a girl he once encountered in his youth. The poet continues to talk about love and beauty .
• “The Song of Wandering Aengus”, As a Representative of Wonder: The poem speaks about the speaker ’s quest to find a beautiful girl he saw in the woods. The poem begins when the speaker goes to the Hazel Woods to find some peace as he is disturbed. While wandering in the woods, he decides to go fishing and peels a thin piece of hazel from a tree to make a wand. The soothing and enchanting nature around gives him a strange feeling and makes him perceive more than his imagination. Absorbed in the serenity of the soothing environment, he cuts the sting and throws into the water and hooks a fish. To his surprise, before he prepares his food, someone calls him by his name. The silver trout caught by the speaker turns into a glimmering girl. He is amazed by her physical appearance and tries to catch her, but she disappears in the air. The memory of that pretty girl leaves a permanent mark on his imagination. He tries to trace her everywhere, but all efforts go in vain. As he grows older, his search continues. He wishes to see her and spend the precious years of his life with her.
• Major Themes in “The Song of Wandering Aengus”: Nature, love, and wonder are the major themes of this poem. Nature plays a central role in this poem. When the speaker is disturbed from the materialistic world, he turns toward nature to find peace. Nature offers him its wonders but also provides him with a chance to get a glimpse of a beautiful woman who magically appears. She never gets close to him, yet he feels a strong sense of belonging with that strange beauty. She also magically disappears, leaving a lasting impression on his life. At an old age, the speaker finds his unrequited and idealized love. He speaks about the nature of romantic love marked with the dimensions of private privacy.

Analysis of Literary Devices in “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

literary devices are essential elements of a literary text. They bring richness to the text and also help the readers understand hidden meanings. William Butler Yeats has also made this poem superb by using figurative language . Here is the analysis of some literary devices used in this poem.

• Assonance : Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /ai/ in “And pluck till time and times are done”.
• Alliteration : Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick succession. For example, the sound of /w/ in “And when white moths were on the wing”.
• Consonance : Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /ng/ in “And walk among long dappled grass”.
• Enjambment : It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break . Instead, the verse continues in the next line. For example;

“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.”

• Imagery : Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, “I went out to the hazel wood”, “And walk among long dappled grass” and “And kiss her lips and take her hands.”
• Symbolism : Symbolism is a use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings different from their literal meanings. Here, “glimmering girl” is the symbol of love and beauty.

Analysis of Poetic Devices in “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

• End Rhyme : End rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. For example, “hair/air”, “lands/hands” and “head/thread.”
• Iambic Tetrameter: It is a type of meter having four iambs per line. The poem follows iambic tetrameter. For example, “ When  I had  laid   it  on  the  ”
• Rhyme Scheme : The poem follows the ABABCDCD rhyme scheme , and this pattern continues until the end.
• Stanza : A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are three stanzas in this poem, with each comprising an equal number of verses.

Quotes to be Used

The lines stated below can be used by a lover to describe his infinite love for his beloved .

“ 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.”

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The Song of Wandering Aengus

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Which word best describes the story told in the poem?

hallucination

Which event was most surprising to Aengus?

He sleepwalked into the forest.

Moths were all around him.

The fish he caught became a girl.

He found silver and golden apples.

In the line I went out to the hazel wood, the sound device used is called-

alliteration

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