The Song of Wandering Aengus

 

Yeats on Irish mythology and the need for Change

"Gaelic Irish literature was intolerably low in tone with very little idealism in it, and very little imagination"  • Yeats needed to make adjustments...

Mythological Aengus...in brief...

• Aengus, an ancient prince, was haunted by the dream of a fair young woman. 

 • In the dream, the young woman is everything he

could ever wish for.  • He quickly falls in love with her and becomes

lovesick upon waking.  • He began to search all of Ireland for the young

woman in his dreams. 

More Aengus...•  Aengus tells his mother, she searches, and after a year,

she cannot find the woman • Aengus asks his father, the king, to help search for the

maiden.  • After a year of searching, his father could not find her. 

 • Finally, the king and a friend of the king search for her.

After a year, he finds the elusive young maiden.  • The End

This Aengus wouldn't work for Yeats 

He needed something more...compelling  

What does Yeats add to Aengus?

   

What new ideas are present in the "Song of Wandering Aengus?" Maybe...• Why the use of the myth? • Maude Gonne? • Contemporary Irish Nationalism?