Yeats: The Song of Wandering Aengus

(http://morgainelefee.deviantart.com/art/The-Song-of-Wandering-Aengus-314665372)
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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.

(http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19602)

Aengus was an Irish god whose fate had been to stay forever young. He felt in love for a girl who once came to him in a dream. The girl was metamorphosing herself in a swan, then back in a girl, again and again, and Aengus became sick with love, for ever. Yeats changed a little bit the legend, as in his poem the girl changes in a trout. Both trout and swan are associated with the universe of water, and the trout-girl recalls the Irish myth of the maighdean mhara (mermaids), who often bewitch men to fall in love with them (more in depth at http://literature-classics.knoji.com/the-song-of-wandering-aengus-by-wb-yeats-an-analysis/)

sung by Donovan
(video by Siss ham)

(William Butler Yeats)