How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air (15-16)
Aengus meets the love of his life and, just like that, she disappears into thin air. Talk about disappointment. If you're scoring at home, that's one brief instant of happiness, a lifetime of misery and frustration.
Quote #2
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone (17-19)
Aengus has grown old looking for the "glimmering girl." Though he still hasn't found her, he continues to hold out hope. Is he deluded? We think so. The fact that he's spent so much time looking for her without finding her suggests that his quest is going to end in disappointment.
Quote #3
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass (20-21)
Here we have the speaker fantasizing about what he'll do when he finds the glimmering girl. The thing is, he hasn't found her. And so this fantasy actually underscores the speaker's disappointment. He wishes he could kiss the girl and hold her, but he can't. Aengus' unrequited love here also reflects how Yeats revises the original Celtic myth about Aengus. In the myth, Aengus identifies the girl and the two of them are transformed into swans and go off into the sunset together. But in Yeats' poem, Aengus doesn't find his paramour. So the poem puts an emphasis on disappointment, rather than on the fulfillment of love—bad times, gang.