Yeats's The Song of Wandering Aengus

Briana McCluskey
English 150
Wednesday 9 October 2013, 5 p.m. section

Plan: recite the entire poem, then give a short explanation of the Irish Myth about Aengus so the class has that background for understanding the similarities in the poem (especially since Yeats was very interested in Irish folklore and mythology), discussion questions/points of discussion will be on the board to prompt discussion.

Discussion Questions

(I will only write the questions, the bullet points are for me)

1. How are the differences between the poem and the Irish myth significant?
   • Ending = poem ends without him actually finding his true love, yet Aengus is said to have found is love — what does this tell us as readers?
   • Does this reflect Yeats' supposed obsession with Maud Gonne and how she was unattainable to him?
   • Evidence in the poem: the poem is about lovesickness — something burning in my head;I will find out where she has gone.
   • When he actually goes to blow the fire a-flame is when she actually transforms and then fades away
   • Transformations are reversed.
2. Is the poem actually about Aengus or the average Irish man?
   • Aengus is never actually named — the narrator of the poem claims his name is called out many times but we only know Aengus is associated with the poem because of the title/similarities to the folklore in the poem.
   • Is he actually old with age (since gods don't age, men do) or just old with years of wandering with lovesickness?
   • Poem about lovesickness and wandering
3. Transformations
   • Myth = girl turns into a swan.
   • Poem = fish turns into a girl. It's reversed; why?
   • it had become a glimmering girl.
4. Repetition of apples/fruit (berry)? Why? Significance?
   • Referencing the Book of Genesis — Irish people were predominantly Catholic, would know the reference; what biblical implications does this make about the poem?
   • it had become a glimmering girl/with apple blossom in her hair.
   • Referencing the creation of Eve?
   • Is it merely used to further connect it to Irish folklore? Aengus was said to have a house that bore a lot of fruit, it could be subtly connecting the poem to Aengus/Irish folklore.

Folklore/ background information

Aengu or Aengus Og = god of youth/beauty/love

The story goes that Aengus falls in love with a young girl called Caer. He had only seen her in his dreams, but still becomes lovesick for her and determined to find her. After years of searching, he finally found her. However, Caer spent each year alternately as a swan or as a human girl. When Aengus found her, she was a swan amongst about 150 other women transformed into swans and he had to pick her out of the crowd in order to be allowed to wed her. He successfully picks his true love and then plunged into the water beside her and he too turned into a swan. Together they sang the most beautiful songs that put all who heard to sleep. After a year, Caer and Aengus turned from swans back to their original form.