The poem
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 lads 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.
it is a good poem but i don't get the first stanza!!!!!!
In the first stanza, he needs distraction and so goes to the wood, fashions a pole and fishes.
like much of Yeat's early work his first stanza uses celtic mythology in an attempt to create a world from words. The hazel tree is a magical tree in celtic mythology found at the well of wisdom. He is in his subconcious in the first stanza where he catches the trout, when he brings it out of the mythological word into ther real one, it becomes a glimmering girl. Symbolic of maud gonne, and it has to leave, it can only exist in his world of words.