Love
The poem's speaker immediately falls for the woman who appears before him in the forest, and spends the rest of his life chasing after her. Love—or perhaps infatuation—is treated here as a near-magical force, capable of sustaining hope even when resignation seems the rational response. At the time when he narrates the poem, Aengus has not seen the object of his adoration in many years, and has spent an enormous amount of time and effort seeking her out. Nevertheless, the intensity of his attachment fuels him. He sees their reunion as an inevitability, with optimism undampened by his years without success.
The Beauty of Nature
Aengus's adoration for the girl in the woods is inextricable from his love of the natural world. The girl herself evolves seamlessly out of nature. She is created through the magical transformation of a fish, and, once she appears in human form, her continued link to the natural world is signified through the image of apple blossoms woven into her hair. The speaker's vision of their future together is similarly entwined with nature. He imagines the two of them making the natural world into a kind of playground, walking in the grass and plucking the sun and moon like apples. In this light, Aengus's long search for the girl, traversing the hills and valleys of nature, appears less futile. Because he views his love as so deeply related to the natural world, his search through these landscapes can be understood as an expression of that love.
Aging
In Irish folklore, the god Aengus represents (among other things) youth. In this work, however, Aengus does not remain young forever. Instead, throughout his interminable search for the object of his love, he transforms from an energetic youth into an old man. In spite of this, though, he maintains the optimism and energy of youth, refusing to see his search as a failure. He displays neither the satisfaction and tranquility, nor the bitterness and regret, that might be more typically associated with old age. This refusal to age in a stereotypical manner appears at once liberating and burdensome—liberating because the speaker maintains energy and hope, and burdensome because he continues to exhaust himself with his search even as an old man. Thus, the poem suggests, the literal condition of old age does not necessarily determine the mindset, attitude, or internal life of the aging individual—for better or for worse.
