Symbol Analysis
"Wandering" is in the title of this poem, so we're just gonna bet that it's an important theme. The fact of the matter is that Aengus meets the glimmering girl because he goes wandering into the hazel wood. And then, after he meets her, he spends years and years wandering even more in search of her. Clearly, this guy can't stay put for long. Wandering is a symbol of Aengus' endless desire for the girl and, in a broader sense, it's also a symbol for our own desires and strivings. We know that feeling of wanting something so bad and not being able to rest until we have it. Maybe it's a girl or a guy. Maybe it's a job. Maybe it's a diamond-encrusted cupcake. (What? We have dreams too, you know.) We'll "wander" in search of that thing because we just have to have it.
- Lines 1-2: The speaker tells us that he goes out to the hazel wood because "a fire" is in his head. The speaker doesn't explain what this "fire" is exactly, but we can guess that it's some sort of desire or drive to wander, or to go elsewhere. This is why the speaker ends up in the hazel wood. The speaker's desire to wander here foreshadows the wandering that he'll end up doing in search of the "glimmering girl."
- Line 17: The speaker says that he's "old with wandering." This guy has spent his entire life looking for the glimmering girl. Wandering comes to define the speaker's life. In this way, it's also an important theme in the poem. The speaker's wandering represents his pursuit of a beautiful woman on one level, but on another it can also be read as a pursuit of the ideal (ideal beauty, ideal artistic perfection, and so on).
- Line 18: Here the speaker describes the landscapes he's wandered through: "hollow lands and hilly lands." These contrasting landscapes give us a sense of just how wide and far the speaker has wandered. This dude is seriously love-struck. He's been searching everywhere for the glimmering girl. The time and energy he's spent searching for her suggest the speaker's determination on the one hand, but the futility of his quest on the other. He's old and he still hasn't found her. Yeah… it's not looking good for our speaker.