1. The Song of Wandering Aengus
Daniel Q., Eric S., Serena M., Isha K., Eddie L.

2. Background Written for Yeats’s lifelong (unrequited) lover, Maud Gonne
An active Irish nationalist
An inspiration for many of Yeats’s poems
Originally, it was called “The Mad Song”
This reflects the dream-like, hallucinatory mood of the poem
Romantic poem (not just literally) (his Romantic phase)
Emotion
Nature
Imagination
Beauty
Yeats’s involvement with the Golden Dawn and his fascination with mysticism and magic

3. Dominant Effect
In his poem “The Song of Wandering Aengus”, Yeats uses nature, celestial, and light imagery to create a dream-like narrative of his romance with Maud Gonne, illustrating the blinding nature of romantic passion and the futility of desire.

4. Wandering Aengus Celtic Irish God of Love
Fell in love with a girl who turned into a swan
In touch with nature
Without a purpose, he wanders through his eternal life
Duality of title
Aengus can represent both himself and the idea of love

5. Rhyme and Meter Very rigid Uses iambic tetrameter
Rhyme scheme: _A_A, _B_B, etc.

6. POV Uncertainty differentiating between Aengus and Yeates
Comparison of Yeates to Aengus
Romantic focus on self
Seeing, feeling, experiencing

7. Fire/Light Imagery
“I went out to the hazel wood...because a fire was in my head”
Fire is the flame of love
“I went to blow the fire a-flame... it had become a glimmering girl with an apple blossom in her hair”
“Glimmering” = ethereal beauty, blowing the fire = igniting love

8. Aengus and Nature
“And when white moths were on the wing, / And moth-like stars were flickering out, / I dropped the berry in the stream / And caught a little silver trout.”
Creates a serene, dreamy mood - moonlit night
“And kiss her lips and take her hands; / And walk among long dappled grass”
Characterizes the girl as a sort of fairy or nymph by always associating her with nature

9. Celestial / Color Imagery
“And moth-like stars were flickering out”
“The silver apples of the moon, / The golden apples of the sun”
Golden apples - the story of Atalanta

10. Theme of Love
“It had become a glimmering girl With apple blossom in her hair”(13-14)
“I will find out where she has gone, And kiss her lips and take her hands” (19-20)
“Who called me by my name and ran And faded through the brightening air.” (15-16)
In the first quote Yeats’ describes the girl as “glimmering” and this leads readers to believe that she is beautiful. The speaker is instantly stricken by the woman’s beauty which in return causes a “love at second sight” because initially she was a fish. This marks the moment of the speaker falling in love. Lines really begins to expose how obsessed the speaker has become with the woman, only meeting her for a brief moment caused him to the remainder of his life looking for her. The third quote is saying that the woman began to flirt with the Aengus just before she disappears. The ambiguity of the woman and her fading into “brightening air” is what attracts the him to her even more.

11. Theme of Time
“I went out to the hazel wood, / Because a fire was in my head”
“Though I am old with wandering / Through hollow lands and hilly lands”
“I will find out where she has gone”

12. Discussion Question #1
What is Yeats’ reason for portraying Aengus, who is originally a god, as a human who can age?

13. Discussion Question #2
What is the effect of the speaker’s inability to find the girl at the end of the poem?

14. Discussion Question #3
Analyze the difference between love and infatuation. Does this poem create a distinction between the two?

15. Discussion question #4
How does the first person narrative change the meaning of this poem?

16. EXIT SLIP
Pick a motif and/or type of imagery from this poem. Analyze the effect of this technique in a dominant effect statement.