Ageless Words Friday: The Song of Wandering Aengus

This poem is copied from the book The Poets’ Company (1951[1]), containing English poems selected by E.W. Parker. It is a small red volume, bound in cloth and with a faded name written on the side of the pages in pencil. I picked it up at a local library sale (where I’m known as the ‘girl looking for old books’) and found some of the pages filled with class notes and some doodles which were probably done during a not-so-interesting class.

One of the poets included in the volume is William Butler Yeats; represented by four poems including “The Song of Wandering Aengus”. Below is the poem and the poem set to music, performed by Nóirín ní Riain (and the free – and legal – mp3 can be downloaded here[2]).

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 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 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.

"I went out to the hazel wood..."

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[1] First published 1939.

[2] With thanks to Marc Gunn and his wonderful Celtic mp3 Magazine.