Perfection Through Art: Another theme in the poem is the possibility for perfection through art in an otherwise imperfect world. The Song of Wandering Aengus. This may be stopping the print version from appearing. Edit. Already a member? Yeats revived this image to similar ends in his late poem “Sailing to Byzantium,” in which the speaker describes the “artifice of eternity”: Start your 48-hour free trial and unlock all the summaries, Q&A, and analyses you need to get better grades now. In the final stanza, Aengus expresses his longing both for the “glimmering girl” and for the eternity whence he came. In truth, the haunting, dream-like image of the “glimmering girl” is more mesmerizing than any actual human. The first half of Yeats’s career was dominated by Romanticism, a philosophical and artistic mode which he adopted in the final years of the 19th century, decades after the Romantic movement had already begun to wane. / And when white moths were on the wing / And moth-like stars were flickering out / … - The speaker will take the glimmering girl's hands. Get an answer to your question The limitless power of poetry is a theme in which poem? Browse Library, Teacher Memberships 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. Answer key is included.Sonnet 43D In the poem’s closing lines, Aengus promises to pluck “the silver apples of the moon,/The golden apples of the sun.” This pair of images symbolizes the process of artistic creation. The Song of Wandering Aengus - Comprehension Questions Answer Key 9. love is everlasting. See in text (The Song of Wandering Aengus). What images does the poet make you see? The feelings and experiences of his passionate life were transferred into his poetry. The Song of Wandering Aengus BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS. \The Song of the Wandering Aengus\ C. \Annabel Lee\ D. \I dwell in Possibility\ By William Butler Yeats. For the Romantics, the greatest object of Sehnsucht is Ewigkeit—eternity. love is everlasting. The world of W.B. Yeats alters the original myth in this way. As the poem progresses, Yeats weaves a pattern of de-romanticization and disappointment. Save. The speaker is Aengus, who exists as both Aengus, the Celtic god of youth, love, and poetry, and a mortal man named Aengus. Aengus the god falls in love with the “glimmering girl,” whose flight and disappearance cause him to step out of the mythical Otherworld of eternal youth and into the real world, where he becomes Aengus, the time-weathered old man. About the Poem William Butler Yeats wrote “The Song of Wandering Aengus” on January 31 sometime in the late 1890s. Yeats’s Use of the Aisling In the “The Song of Wandering Aengus,” Yeats intentionally adopted the aisling and produced a “song” harkening back to the lyrical aspect of the form. love is dumb. Edit. W.B. Last Updated on June 1, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. Plato elaborates on the Greek myth in which Zeus splits all humans in two at birth, leaving them to wander the earth in search of their missing half. The Song of Wandering Aengus by William Butler Yeats. With this in mind, such apples are the result of artistic creation. In the myth, Aengus gets … One of the chief aims of Romanticism is the expression of longing, though this longing pointed towards the abstract and unreal. In fact, it's so sing-songy, it could be a children's lullaby. The golden apples of the sun...."  Join for Free The Song of Wandering Aengus first appeared in Yeats’ collection of poems, The Wind Among the Reeds, published in 1899.