Featured Poem: The Song of Wandering Aengus by W.B. Yeats

For this week's Featured Poem, we're looking no further than the really rather wonderful A Little, Aloud for Children - available to buy from all good local bookstores, online and via The Reader Organisation website now. The book is packed with tons of poems and stories, all matched to a particular theme (from 'Charming Creatures', to 'Secrets', to the very intriguing 'If Trees Could Talk') and all specially selected to read aloud and enjoy with children of all ages.

Choosing just one poem from the book is very difficult as there's so many delights (a reason why you should definitely snap up your copy and then share your thoughts with us over on the A Little, Aloud blog), but, as it's his 147th birthday this coming Wednesday we're settling on this selection from W.B. Yeats - featuring under the mystical and magical heading of 'Silver' in the book. Read on to be enchanted... (by the way, for those of us not familiar with Irish names or pronunciation, it's said 'Eengus')

The Song of Wandering Aengus

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 aflame,
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.

W.B. Yeats