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The Song of Wandering Aengus

[ Roud - ; DT WANDANG ; Mudcat 44244 ; poem William Butler Yeats, tune Richard Dyer-Bennett]

The Song of Wandering Aengus is a poem by Irish poet William Butler Yeats. It was first printed in the British magazine of art and actuality, The Sketch, Vol. 19, 4 August 1897, p. 52, with the title A Mad Song. Two years later, t was published with its standard title The Song of Wandering Aengus. in Yeats’ 1899 anthology The Wind Among the Reeds, pp. 15-16.

Note that the name of the protagonist is not the Scots first name ‘Angus’. It is ‘Aengus’, one of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish mythology.

Burl Ives sang The Wandering of Old Aengus in 1954 on his Decca album Songs of Old Ireland.

Judy Collins sang this poem under the title Golden Apple of the Sun in 1962 on her same-named Elektra album Golden Apples of the Sun.

Jean Redpath sang Song of Wandering Aengus in 1987 on her album A Fine Song for Singing.

Jake Walton sang The Song of Wandering Aengus in 1976 on his, Roger Nicholson and Andrew Cronshaw’s Trailer album Times and Traditions for Dulcimer.

Martyn Wyndham-Read sang Wandering Aengus in 1981 on his Fellside album Emu Plains. A.L. Lloyd noted:

The words of this handsome song of an elusive and haunting fairy girl were written by W.B. Yeats and first printed in his Wind Among the Reeds in 1899.

Danny Spooner sang The Song of the Wandering Aengus on his 1987 album When a Man’s in Love. He noted:

This magical poem is the work of the great Anglo-Irish poet W.B. Yeats. Here a human glimpses the unattainable, the ideal supernatural lover, but the poem also suggests lost love or missed opportunities. The tune is said to have been set by one Richard Dyer-Bennett.

Steve Tilston sang Song of the Wandering Aengus in 2013 on his CD Happenstance.

Julie Abbé sang The Song of Wandering Aengus on her 2020 album Numberless Dreams.

Lyrics

W.B. Yeats’ poem A Mad Song in The Sketch

I went out tn 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 a stool,
I bent to blow the fire aflame,
But something rustled on the stool,
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 in the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
In barren hills and marshy land,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hand;
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.

W.B. Yeats’ poem The Song of Wandering Aengus in The Wind Among the Reeds

I went out tn 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,
In barren hills and marshy land,
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.