Friday, March 06, 2009

Wandering Aengus and Moth Boy

From "The Song of Wandering Aengus" by William Butler Yeats:

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.


You may read the rest of the poem here.

I was 12 or 13 when I first read this poem, and I loved it so much I memorized it. I discovered the poem through Ray Bradbury's book of short stories called The Golden Apples of the Sun, the title of which is the last line of the Yeats poem.

While I was stitching up Moth Boy (obtained from a kit with a few modifications), I kept thinking of the poem. It didn't occur to me until now that associating Moth Boy with the poem was a bit humorous regarding the line "... fire was in my head." I decided that to earn his title, Moth Boy needed more than a lantern to attract the moths, and so I gave him orange-red hair. Here is the front of Moth Boy:



Moth Boy is so irresistable that he even has one of these crepuscular creatures hitchhiking on his back:



This week's Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted at Picture Book of the Day. I'm sure that this is not the first time "The Song of Wandering Aengus" has been featured on Poetry Friday. As a reminder, anyone in the blogosphere is eligible to participate in Poetry Friday.

7 comments:

tanita✿davis said...

Oh, gorgeous!

Also: until April, the PF schedule is at Mary's blog. And today's PF is at Anastasia Suen's blog.

Do you know just LOVE the word "crepuscular?!" It reminds me of crepe -- yards and yards of the fabric, mistily hanging between the earth and the sky, bringing on dusk...

Lone Star Ma said...

I love moth boy! Moths sort of remind me of little winged teddy bears.

I have had such a month as brings on the Yeats poetry...

Saints and Spinners said...

Tanita: Thanks! I've updated my post. Yes, I love crepuscular, too. It's up there with the German word for bat: Fleidermaus.

LSM: Thanks! This month of Yeats poetry... I'm guessing that it's been a little "Crazy Jane" for you.

Jules at 7-Imp said...

I love Moth Boy!

Charlotte said...

Does Moth Boy grow up to be the Moth Man of West Virginia? Moth Man has entered our consciousness with a vengance, thanks to his cameo appearance in United Tweets of America...

Crepuscular has never been a favorite of mine, due to the unfortunate "pus" part of it...but I do like fleidermaus very much!

Saints and Spinners said...

I had to look up Moth Man. Wikipedia has a photo of an impressive statue. My Moth Boy is a bit more humble, I think.

Vivian Mahoney said...

Moth Boy is gorgeous! Is there a Moth Girl in the works?