Students in our Touchpebbles reading strategy group have been working on interpreting the poem, "The Song of the Wandering Aengus" by William Butler Yates. After working together on visualizing and interpreting what we felt the poem meant, partners took their thoughts and created a story version of the whole poem or just some of the stanzas. Here are two of those stories.
Molly and Rachel's Story - The First Two Stanzas
The man went to the woods nearby because he was confused. He had peeled wood from a tree and then made a wand to fish with. He went over the stream to get a berry on his string. When the moths and birds were finally coming out and when the lightning bugs and stars were flickering out, he went fishing. To get across the flowing stream he made a bridge.
He caught a silver trout, and he laid the fish on his floor at home. He set up a fire nearby to heat the fish up. Then he heard a rustle on the floor. Somebody called his name!
Sam and Megan's Story - The Whole Poem
There once was a man who had fire in his head. When he went to the hazelwood he fished for a silver trout when stars were flickering about. Not knowing the fish was a disquised human, he took it home and laid it on the floor.
Suddenly, the fish turned into a girl! The man got frightened and mystified, and the girl ran away. The man tried to chase her on the hollow lands. She faded through the brightening air. Though the man is now old, he wanders to find where she has gone.
Lily and Xavier's Story - The Whole Poem
I went out to the woods because my hair is red. I cut a stick from a tree. I put a berry on a hook, a moth went to my berry, and lightning came down from the sky. I dropped the berry in the stream and caught a fish.
I laid my fish on the floor and went to make the fire bigger. But then the fish flopped on the floor, and some random person yelled my name. The person who yelled my name was a girl who had a flower in her hair. She said my name and ran away through the foggy, clearing weather.
Even though I am old and very confused, I will run through lots of empty lands with lots of hills to find out where the girl has gone. I will give her a kiss and hold her hands. We will walk through the bits of long grass and work until it's time to quit the job. The moon looks like silver in the sky, and the sun looks like gold from above.
You can check out other stories by clicking the links we add here when they are published on our student blogs!
