Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 9-12
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
- The speaker puts his fish on the floor (we're guessing he means the forest floor here) and goes to light a fire. In these lines, the literal fire that the speaker lights recalls the metaphorical "fire" in the speaker's head that was mentioned in line 2.
- All of a sudden, something is rustling on the floor, and someone calls the speaker's name. Wait—we thought the speaker was hanging out alone? Who the heck is calling his name? Read on to find out…
- Before you do, though, note the alliteration happening in these lines with those F words (no, not that F word) in lines 9-10. See "Sound Check" for more.
Lines 13-16
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.
- What's this? The fish has become a girl? How did that happen?
- It's a good question, Shmoopers, but it helps to know that, actually, this poem is playing off a story from Celtic mythology. "Aengus," our speaker, is a figure in Celtic mythology who falls in love with a girl who then turns into a swan. So here, we see Yeats retelling that story, but also revising it. Whereas in the original myth the girl that Aengus falls in love with turns into a swan, here a trout turns into a girl. (We'll just put that down to artistic license.)
- This girl doesn't hang around for long, does she? She calls the speaker by his name and then "fade[s] through the brightening air." What a flirt.
- We get more alliteration here, with the repetition of G words ("glimmering girl"), M words ("me" and "my name"), and B words ("become," "blossom," "brightening"). (Hit up "Sound Check" for the details.)
- The magical appearance of the girl recalls the speaker's use of the word "wand" in the first stanza (3). The word "wand"—which is used to describe his fishing rod—evokes magic, and in this second stanza we actually see magic happening. Our minds are blown.
- This second stanza continues the rhyme scheme that was established in the first stanza of the poem. Here, it's ABABCDED, since line 9 and 11 end on the same word (which, of course, creates as good a rhyme as you'll ever get). Check out "Form and Meter" for more on how this poem is structured.