The Song of Wandering Aengus Man and the Natural World Quotes

The "hazel wood" that the speaker goes to suggests to us that nature is important not only as a setting, but also as a theme in this poem. This is where Aengus' life will be transformed because it's where he'll meet the glimmering girl.

We get a pretty evocative description of nature here. White moths are "on the wing," or flying around. The speaker ties the moths to the stars by saying that the stars themselves resemble moths. Although no magic has happened yet in the poem, this beautiful description of the moths and stars gives us a sense of the magic of nature.

The speaker catches a fish. Why is this significant? Because it shows us how nature is a source of sustenance. It provides Aengus with food, with what he needs to survive.

Here we see nature as a source of magic. The fish that the speaker catches to eat for supper has suddenly turned into a "glimmering girl." This incident reflects the way in which the poem frames nature as a source of the fantastical and the magical. The fact that the girl has "apple blossom" in her hair also ties her to nature.

What does Aengus want to do when he finds his love? He wants to walk in the grass with her. Nature itself becomes symbolic of the speaker's love for the glimmering girl, and the fulfillment of that love. He imagines plucking the "silver apples" and the "golden apples" of the moon and sun with her. The "apples," of course, recall the "apple blossom" in the girl's hair. So the apples connect the girl with nature, and they also connect the speaker's love for the girl to nature. Nature is the source of his love, and it's also where his love finds expression.