Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
Aengus, the Celtic god of youth, poetry, and love
Form and Meter
Three octaves of iambic tetrameter with an ABCBDEFE rhyme scheme
Metaphors and Similes
"A fire was in my head" is a metaphor for Aengus's emotional and passionate mood. "The silver apples of the moon,/The golden apples of the sun" is a metaphor comparing the sun and moon to apples. "Moth-like stars" is a simile comparing the stars to insects.
Alliteration and Assonance
The line "And when white moths were on the wing" is full of alliterative W sounds, while "fire a-flame" contains alliterative F sounds, and "glimmering girl" contains alliterative G sounds.
"little silver trout" and "kiss her lips" both display alliterative I sounds, while "dappled grass" contains alliterative short A sounds.
Irony
One of the poem's ironies, clear to readers familiar with its folkloric context, is the fact that Aengus grows old in spite of being a figure who represents youth. Another irony is the fact that Aengus grows unexpectedly more attached to the girl, and more determined to find her, even as he continues to search without success.
Genre
Dramatic Monologue
Setting
A mythical Irish past
Tone
Wistful, hopeful, lyrical
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist—Aengus. Antagonist—the elusive girl whom Aengus seeks.
Major Conflict
The poem's major conflict is Aengus's quest to find the girl he meets in the forest.
Climax
The poem's climax is the moment in which the fish transforms into a woman.
Foreshadowing
The "fire in (Aengus's) head" at the start of the poem, itself a metaphorical representation of passionate feeling, foreshadows the passion and longing that he will come to feel for the woman he seeks.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The poem as a whole alludes to the figure of Aengus, a god in the Irish Celtic folkloric tradition. While this poem's narrative does not hew closely to any single Irish myth, it contains echoes of the myth describing Aengus's search for and marriage to Caer Ibormeith.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The phrase "on the wing" uses metonymy to refer to flight through the image of the wing.
Personification
The poem contains no personification, although it does contain a literal transformation of a fish into a person.
Hyperbole
The promise that Aengus and the girl will "pluck till time and times are done" is a hyperbolic one.
Onomatopoeia
"rustled" is an example of onomatopoeia.
