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What are the lyrics to harry styles' ‘falling’ and is the song about his ex camille rowe.

15 July 2021, 17:04

By Capital FM

Harry Styles’ song ‘Falling’ is thought to be about his ex-girlfriend, Camille Rowe, but what do the lyrics mean?

After Harry Styles performed ‘Falling’ live for the first time , he dropped the highly-anticipated music video and it was a tear-jerker, unlike the summery bop that is his other hit, 'Watermelon Sugar '!

But what do the lyrics to 'Falling' mean? ‘Falling’ is from Haz’s second album ‘Fine Line’, which he released in December 2019, and the lyrics are reportedly about his split from ex-girlfriend Camille Rowe.

Harry Styles New Album 2021: Is Harry Releasing New Music?

After a voicemail at the end of his song ‘Cherry’ was claimed to be Camille’s voice , it seems Harry’s ex was the inspiration behind another of Harry’s tracks.

Is ‘Falling’ about Harry Styles’ ex Camille Rowe?

While Harry hasn’t confirmed the inspiration behind any of his songs, he did tell Rolling Stone in 2019 his album is “all about having sex and feeling sad.”

‘Falling’ is about a difficult breakup and the fact one line includes: ‘I’m well aware I write too many songs about you’ hints it could indeed be about Camille.

He also admits the breakdown of their relationship was his fault, singing:

‘I'm in my bed, and you're not here

And there's no one to blame but the drink in my wandering hands,

Forget what I said, It's not what I meant

And I can't take it back,

I can't unpack the baggage you left’

What are the lyrics to ‘Falling’ by Harry Styles?

Harry Styles opens the ceremony in spectacular style, shirtless in a leather suit and green feather boa

You can learn the lyrics to ‘Falling’, here…

I'm in my bed

And you're not here

And there's no one to blame but the drink and my wandering hands

Forget what I said It's not what I meant

And I can't take it back, I can't unpack the baggage you left

What am I now?

What if I'm someone I don't want around?

I'm falling again, I'm falling again, I'm fallin'

What if I'm down?

What if I'm out?

What if I'm someone you won't talk about?

You said you care, and you missed me too

And I'm well aware I write too many songs about you

And the coffee's out at the Beachwood Cafe

And it kills me 'cause I know we've ran out of things we can say

And I get the feeling that you'll never need me again

What am I now? What am I now? What if you're someone I just want around? I'm falling again, I'm falling again, I'm fallin' What if I'm down?

I'm falling again, I'm falling again,

I'm fallin'

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Harry Styles : Falling Meaning

Song Released: 2019

Falling lyrics, 1 top rated.

When I first listened to this song I burst into tears because it is so raw and meaningful and feels so personal compared to his previous album. The first verse talks about harry and his wandering hand, this could be about him either cheating or the use of alcohol. Whatever he did, he regrets it but the damage has already been done and he can't take it back. He hates himself for it and doesn't know who he is anymore "what if I'm someone I don't want around" this line mentions that harry hates who he is and is in a dark place in his life and cannot bear to be around himself after what he did. "what if I'm someone you won't talk about" this line is about harry still caring for this person and wants the person he loves to still talk about him because this means they still care. But he is worried that because of what he has done, the person he loves has moved on and has forgotten him. "I'm falling again" NOW this verse just makes me so upset. The metaphor of falling just makes me think about how lost he would have felt and as if his whole world was crashing down. As if he was falling down a dark hole again. By falling again he means that something has happened in his life for him to fall back into a bad place in his life where he just got out of. Near the end of the song, harry gets very vulnerable and screams I'm falling. This is almost like a plead for help as he has fallen so deep that he is unable to get back to where he was and he hates himself for it. He is helpless and at an all-time low in his life. Meaning aside, this is such a beautiful song and makes me feel all sorts of emotions but makes me especially sad that harry went through this :((((

2 TOP RATED

Harry had a person. He really loved this person and somewhere along the way it went wrong. He believes that he hurt them so badly that they aren't ever going to fix things and he hates himself for it, not allowing himself to move on or forgive himself. All he cares about is them and missing them and in the meantime he is falling apart. No pun intended.

3 TOP RATED

Despite many thinking this song is about a girl, its most likely it isn't(Harry has hinted this in interviews). Personifying emotions through lovers was something commonly done in One Directions, most commonly on their last album M.I.T.A.M. Falling talks from Harrys perspective of himself before he came back. Similar to Lights Up, he explains emotions of not knowing who he is/ feeling lost. "What am I now? What if Im someone I don't want around? Im falling again..." These lines very explicitly are asking himself, 'who am I?, who have i become?, is it who i want to be?' with the line ending with him declaring how he feels he is 'falling' out of himself. He is unsure if this is a good or bad thing. In the music video, Harry is being submerged in water. This is a metaphor for how he feels the feeling of being lost creeping him and slowly drowning him. Being drowned means you feel trapped/powerless.

Could this song be about two people? a previous love and somebody more recent? He is experiencing that "falling" again, the deep grief that comes with a relationship failing. He may leave little clues in the video as to who he is thinking about.

An uncommon view... I believe things were going well with his girlfriend. But something went wrong in the relationship. A disagreement that hurt her. And the guilt of hurting her was weighing down on him. So he gives up his position in the argument just to be with her no matter how important it was to him. She was then okay, but he wasn't. He realizes it's taken a toll on him emotionally. So he then blames himself and makes himself the bad guy. Blames it on drinking. He begins to spiral with his dark thoughts. And keeps asking himself all these what ifs. But it's too late he's falling anyways.

My interpretation is pretty much based on my personal experience. I took advantage of the love of my life one night when I got drunk. I don't even remember it happening or what was I doing or thinking when the incident happened. I wish I could blame it on the alcohol but that wouldn't be fair. I just can't believe I did it to the girl I love most. I treated her with respect and had pure intentions for her and I never failed to show it through the years of pursuing her. She trusted me for that. But then that night I did something terrible and suddenly I do not know myself anymore. I broke her heart and trust. I ruined everything that was going on for us. All I remember was waking up to my love disgusted in me after what I've done. I am never gonna forgive myself for that. I hate myself so much for making her go through that kind of pain. I used to be her go to every time she's hurting. Now I can't be there for her because I'm the reason. I don't deserve to say I love her anymore. The years full of blissful memories of our times together were completely replaced by that one night. All she remembers me by is the worst memory I gave her. I've been trying to become a better person ever since then because I believe she will forgive me one day and we could start over again. But every night when I'm alone, the line "I’m in my bed And you’re not here, and there’s no one to blame but the drink and my wandering hands" tells how how much I regret the things I've done that night. And the whole song tells how much I hate myself for it. I think no matter how I try to become better I'll never redeem myself. This song speaks for me.

This song reminds me that the Cult that is the Music Industry gives a lot, but requires a lot. The Music Industry Cult has a dark side and no one gets very far up in music / stardom without the assistance of the Music Industry Cult. Perhaps at first the artist makes a few concessions to the Cult— here and there, it doesn’t seem like much until all of a sudden the artist is doing so much at the say so of the Music Industry Cult that everything adds up to an avalanche. The artist feels controlled and falling, falling from their original selves, falling from who they were as they first started out in music. Sad but true. Most artists have, or have had, this problem. Once the Music Industry Cult has used up an artist for their own purposes, they often just leave, taking their support with them. That is a big fear for an artist. The artist who wants to stay current, popular, needs to be needed by the organization. That is just the truth.

I have this story in my head when I listen to this song, two lovers were in an accident, and one lost their memory. They completely forgot who the other one was, and that they were in love The one who forgot doesn’t want to go back into the relationship because they don’t remember why they were in love with the other. And the one who remembers everything goes on, slowly healing and singing this song. “There’s no one to blame but the drink in my wandering hands” like they blame themself for getting into the accident (drunk driving?) “What if I’m someone you won’t talk about?” You don’t remember me, you won’t even think of me or talk about me and I’m left with all of our memories.

To me, this song is talking about how he knows he was/is in too deep with this girl, and how he knows he fricked it all up. " I'm in my bed, but you're not here. and there's no one to blame, but those drinks and my wandering hands. Forget what I said. It's not what I meant. And I can't take it back, I can't unpack the baggage you left...You said you cared. And you missed me, too. And I'm well aware I write too many songs about you. That. last. line. makes me cry a little bit every time I hear it. "And I get the feelin' that you'll never need me again" shivers. every. single. time. istg. B

My interpritation of this song is that harry is falling back into a hole he just came out of. Another reason i think its about Camille Rowe who had taken her own life early in this year, I think harry finding out what happend broke him so much he might have remembered he also cheated on her. The fact that he said " Im fallin again" means he falling AGAIN which means memories are coming back. Well thats my interpritation btw song is so good:(

i have heard that this is when haz was rumoured to be cheating on Camille rowe, which could be the reasoning for the first part "and theres nothing to blame but the drink and my wandering hands, forget what i said, it's not what i meant, but i cant take it back i can't unpack the baggage u left" he seems to be lost, falling in the sadness of his irreversible mistake. but the ONE LINE that makes me cry nearly every time is "And I get the feeling that u'll never need me again" Idk why, but it just hits different - well hope this helps :P

he fell down :/ he cant get up.. he needs life alert... he cant get up at all.. hes stuck.. someone help him

This to me just remindes me of my ex. this song came out right before we broke up for the 8th time. and it just shows how I'm not alone. and it shows how i feel. i was broken. and i thought everything was my fault i felt like i made him lead bc of something i said. but i just i want him back but i know i cant. this song says "I'm falling again" and i always fall for him bc i was in love with him. and i truely wanted a future. and i just wish that i didn't mess me nad him up. every mistake he made i forgave him and moved on, but i make one mistake and i get left. but i still fall for him. but now i feel like he's never gonna need me again. and that he used me to get other girls. he used me for my body, he used me for everything. but this song is the only song that has helped me try and get through this. i know that i messed up but i know I'm gonna keep falling for him. so in my head this song means that as much as you want to fall for someone and you know you will but ou know there bad for you. go away from them. bc they are just gonna keep hurting you. so you will find better i promise

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Falling by Harry Styles

Songfacts®:

• Much of Fine Line was inspired by Harry Styles' year-long romance with French model Camille Rowe. During this dreamy piano ballad, he hints that his infidelity was the reason it ended in July 2018. I'm in my bed, and you're not here And there's no one to blame but the drink and my wandering hands Harry is full of regret that his fall from grace has caused the breakup.
• Harry was really cut up about the breakup, and at times felt sadder than he'd ever felt before in his life. This song is about falling back into one of those low moments. What am I now? What am I now? What if you're someone I just want around? I'm falling again, I'm falling again, I'm fallin' Harry explained to Apple Music that he "had started to feel myself becoming someone I didn't want to be, and that was really hard."
• Harry wrote the song with Florence + The Machine/Jessie Ware collaborator Tom "Kid Harpoon" Hull. The former One Direction star recalled to Zane Lowe that the night they wrote it, he was showering and Kid Harpoon was playing the piano and singing the "dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun" chorus. He stepped out of the shower, stood next to him in a towel, then they wrote the whole thing in around 20 minutes.
• Harry Styles performed the song for the first time on February 18, 2020 at the Brit Awards.
• The water-soaked Dave Meyers-directed video starts with Harry Styles lamenting a failed relationship. The singer starts to perform the song on a grand piano and as he hits the keys, floods of water seep from the instrument. Eventually, the whole ornate room is submerged and Harry drowns in his heartbroken emotions. Styles previously collaborated with Meyers for his " Adore You " visual.
• BTS' Jungkook released a solo cover on YouTube on October 28, 2021.
• More songs from Harry Styles
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• Lyrics to Falling
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Comments: 2

• Brandy from Cocoabeach A beautiful guilt.
• Bluewater from Powys Brilliant song, full of guilt and reproach. This guy has really grown up.

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Song Meanings and Facts

• Harry Styles

“Falling” by Harry Styles

by Jessica Shelton · December 13, 2019

The implication is that Harry Styles is relaying the sentiments expressed in the song “Falling” freshly after breaking up with his significant other. And it also seems pretty obvious that said breakup was not something that he actually desired. Furthermore it would appear that what got him into this predicament is ‘the drink in his wandering hands’. This would apparently indicate that not only was alcohol a factor in the dissolution of his relationship but also him cheating on his partner. 

So now the vocalist is “falling”. This term, as utilized throughout the song, points to the notion of him descending into some sort of depressed state. And this would be the direct result of losing the woman he loves. Moreover he seems to be confused, specifically in terms of coming to grips with the new reality of having to face life without her. Indeed what he appears to fear the most is that this lady ‘will never need him again’. 

So all things considered, it can be argued that this song serves a dual purpose. One is to get the aforementioned points across to the intended addressee, which is the singer’s ex-girlfriend. And the second, implied objective is to get her to sympathize with him in his dejected state and take him back.

Facts about “Falling”

This track was written by Harry Styles with Kid Harpoon, the producer of “Falling”.

It is also a product of Columbia Records, who released “Falling” on 13 December 2019 as part of Harry Styles’ album “Fine Line”.

It has been postulated that the real-life addressee of this song is one Camille Rowe, a model Harry Styles dated for about a year back in 2017-2018.

Was this an official single from “Fine Line”?

No. “Fine Line” produced the following songs as its official singles:

• “ Lights Up ”
• “ Watermelon Sugar ”
• “Adore You”

Related posts:

• “She” by Harry Styles
• “To Be So Lonely” by Harry Styles
• “Canyon Moon” by Harry Styles
• “Adore You” by Harry Styles
• “Cherry” by Harry Styles
• Harry Styles’ “Medicine” Lyrics Meaning
• Harry Styles’ “As It Was” Lyrics Meaning
• “Grapejuice” by Harry Styles
• “Love of My Life” by Harry Styles
• “Satellite” by Harry Styles

4 Responses

• Pingbacks 0

I really appreciate the meaning you gave- makes sense and NO ONEelse gave a good explanation like you did- I REALLY appreciate it.

It reminds me of when LARRY was a thing. I miss LARRY so much. I think that this song is bout LARRY. TBH

I do too, “I write too many songs about you”? Camille?!?! no way. it’s about louis.

Are you sure it’s about him cheating, leading to the breakup? That would be rough.

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Tags: Falling Fine Line Harry Styles Kid Harpoon

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Song Meanings & Facts

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Falling (song)

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" Falling " is a song performed by Harry Styles . It serves as the sixth track from Harry's album, Fine Line . It's the fifth single from the album released on October 26, 2020.

• 1 Background
• 2 Music and composition
• 3 Critical reception
• 5.1 Spotify
• 5.2 YouTube
• 7 References

Background [ ]

Styles and songwriter/producer Kid Harpoon first worked together on Styles' self-titled debut album (2017) on two songs: " Carolina " and " Sweet Creature ". [1] He would also become later the music director of Styles' first world solo tour . [2] While working on his sophomore album, Styles was seeing in the studio working on new music with Harpoon on 15 May 2019. [3] While talking about Styles and the recording process of the album, Harpoon claimed: "He's got this wise-beyond-his-years timelessness about him.

That's why he went on a whole emotional exploration with these songs. He went through this breakup that had a big impact on him." [4] Harpoon then suggested Styles to write about his feelings towards it, saying:" He had a whole emotional journey about her, this whole relationship. But I kept saying, 'The best way of dealing with it is to put it in these songs you're writing.'" [5] Regarding "Falling" in particular, he told: " Harry lives round the corner from me in LA and one day he wanted a lift somewhere, so I popped up there and he was getting out of the shower. I started playing piano while I was waiting for him, he was singing and in an hour we had written 'Falling'." [6] The song was eventually released as the album's third single on 7 March 2020 to UK adult contemporary stations. [7]

Music and composition [ ]

Written by Styles and his producer Kid Harpoon, "Falling" is a "hushed" soul piano ballad [8] [9] , that runs for four minutes long. In an interview Styles commented that the song was lyrically about slipping back into old ways, becoming a person he didn't want to be again and trying to be a better person. [10] According to Laura Snapes from The Guardian , "the line, 'no one to blame but the drink in my wandering hands', from Falling, has prompted tabloid headlines." [11] In another line, he sings: "I'm well aware I write too many songs about you". [12] In fact, the song was said to be written about his breakup with ex-girlfriend Camille Rowe. [13] [14] [15] Hannah Mylrea from NME also noted that "he alludes to the fact he cheated on his ex, admitting that 'there's no one to blame but the drink and my wandering hands". [16]

Critical reception [ ]

The song debuted at number 39 in the UK, giving Styles his fifth top 40 entry there. It later reached number 20 in March 2020 for 3 weeks, [17] making it the third top 20 single and fourth top 20 song from Fine Line and Styles' fifth solo top 20 overall. [18] It peaked at number 15 in April. [19] The song certified Silver in April 2020, making it the album's 4th single to achieve Silver or higher. [20] [21]

The song is certified Platinum in the US, making it Styles's sixth single to be certified Platinum or higher. [22]

I'm in my bed And you're not here And there's no one to blame but the drink in my wandering hands Forget what I said It's not what I meant And I can't take it back, I can't unpack the baggage you left What am I now? What am I now? What if I'm someone I don't want around? I'm falling again, I'm falling again, I'm fallin' What if I'm down? What if I'm out? What if I'm someone you won't talk about? I'm falling again, I'm falling again, I'm fallin' You said you care, and you missed me too And I'm well aware I write too many songs about you And the coffee's out at the Beachwood Cafe And it kills me 'cause I know we've run out of things we can say What am I now? What am I now? What if I'm someone I don't want around? I'm falling again, I'm falling again, I'm fallin' What if I'm down? What if I'm out? What if I'm someone you won't talk about? I'm falling again, I'm falling again, I'm fallin' And I get the feeling that you'll never need me again What am I now? What am I now? What if you're someone I just want around? I'm falling again, I'm falling again, I'm fallin' What if I'm down? What if I'm out? What if I'm someone you won't talk about? I'm falling again, I'm falling again, I'm fallin'

Spotify [ ]

Youtube [ ].

• Official MV
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References [ ]

• ↑ https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7760246/harry-styles-producers-solo-album-bhasker-kid-harpoon
• ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/inside-harry-styles-intimate-first-solo-tour-203795/
• ↑ https://twitter.com/hsdaily/status/1128652874374950913
• ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/harry-styles-cover-interview-album-871568/
• ↑ https://www.musicweek.com/talent/read/showers-sunshine-and-song-kid-harpoon-tells-the-story-of-harry-styles-fine-line/078929
• ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200307110509/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2qNJsnjYFvbLrK9CZ0CfYfM/radio-2-new-music-playlist
• ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/harry-styles-secrets-of-fine-line-926657/
• ↑ https://www.avclub.com/with-fine-line-harry-styles-transforms-into-a-californ-1840463199
• ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/dec/13/harry-styles-fine-line-review-columbia
• ↑ https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/harry-styles-fine-line-album-review-tracklist-songs-one-direction-a9234146.html
• ↑ https://www.capitalfm.com/artists/harry-styles/falling-lyrics-song-meaning-about-camille-rowe/
• ↑ https://www.vulture.com/2019/12/what-harry-styles-says-about-camille-rowe-on-fine-line-album.html
• ↑ https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/harry-styles-fine-line-review-packed-with-personality-and-charm-and-saucy-lyrics-2584779
• ↑ https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/51376/harry-styles/
• ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2020/03/24/harry-styles-the-killers-niall-horan-and-drake-5-major-moves-on-this-weeks-uk-singles-chart/#2d4c85e17c70
• ↑ https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/20200416/7501
• ↑ https://twitter.com/BRITs/status/1246078500693364736
• ↑ https://www.bpi.co.uk/award/13567-4394-1
• ↑ https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&ar=HARRY+STYLES
• 1 List of unreleased songs
• 2 High Tides
• 3 Love on Tour

The Song of Wandering Aengus Summary & Analysis by William Butler Yeats

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First printed in 1897 and collected in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899), W. B. Yeats's "The Song of Wandering Aengus" is a dramatic monologue about burning and thwarted passion. Written in the voice of Aengus (a god of love and youth in Irish mythology), it tells the tale of a magical fish that turns into a beautiful girl and runs away. The infatuated Aengus wanders the earth in pursuit of this girl, growing old but never giving up his search. As a kind of miniature fable, the poem suggests how unrequited love—or any other unattainable dream—can both exhaust a person's energies and nourish a person's imagination.

• Read the full text of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

The Full Text of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

1 I went out to the hazel wood,

2 Because a fire was in my head,

3 And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

4 And hooked a berry to a thread;

5 And when white moths were on the wing,

6 And moth-like stars were flickering out,

7 I dropped the berry in a stream

8 And caught a little silver trout.

9 When I had laid it on the floor

10 I went to blow the fire a-flame,

11 But something rustled on the floor,

12 And someone called me by my name:

13 It had become a glimmering girl

14 With apple blossom in her hair

15 Who called me by my name and ran

16 And faded through the brightening air.

17 Though I am old with wandering

18 Through hollow lands and hilly lands,

19 I will find out where she has gone,

20 And kiss her lips and take her hands;

21 And walk among long dappled grass,

22 And pluck till time and times are done,

23 The silver apples of the moon,

24 The golden apples of the sun.

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Summary

“the song of wandering aengus” themes.

Infatuation, Beauty, and Obsession

• See where this theme is active in the poem.

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

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.

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:

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.

Lines 17-20

Though I am old with wandering Through hollow lands and hilly lands, I will find out where she has gone, And kiss her lips and take her hands;

Lines 21-24

And walk among long dappled grass, And pluck till time and times are done, The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun.

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Symbols

• See where this symbol appears in the poem.

Silver Trout

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

Parallelism

Alliteration, juxtaposition, “the song of wandering aengus” vocabulary.

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• On the wing
• Apple blossom
• See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

Rhyme scheme, “the song of wandering aengus” speaker, “the song of wandering aengus” setting, literary and historical context of “the song of wandering aengus”, more “the song of wandering aengus” resources, external resources.

The Poet's Life and Work — Read a short bio of Yeats, along with other Yeats poems, at Poets.org.

The Poem Read Aloud — Hear a reading of the poem by actor Michael Gambon.

"Aengus" in Song — Listen to a 1971 adaptation of the poem by folk singer Donovan.

Yeats, Nobel Laureate — Browse an exhibit on Yeats, winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature, at Nobel.org.

The Many Sides of Yeats — Read the Poetry Foundation's introduction to the various phases of Yeats's career.

Yeats Reads His Work — Listen to a rare recording of W. B. Yeats reading his poetry aloud.

LitCharts on Other Poems by William Butler Yeats

Adam's Curse

Among School Children

An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

A Prayer for my Daughter

Easter, 1916

In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz

Lapis Lazuli

Leda and the Swan

Sailing to Byzantium

September 1913

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

The Second Coming

The Wild Swans at Coole

When You Are Old

Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions

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The Song of Wandering Aengus

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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.  

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:   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.  

Though I am old with wandering   Through hollow lands and hilly lands,   I will find out where she has gone,   And kiss her lips and take her hands; And walk among long dappled grass,   And pluck till time and times are done,   The silver apples of the moon,   The golden apples of the sun.

This poem is in the public domain.

More by this poet

Leda and the swan.

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill, He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

A Prayer for my Daughter

Once more the storm is howling, and half hid Under this cradle-hood and coverlid My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle But Gregory's wood and one bare hill Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind, Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed; And for an hour I have walked and prayed

The Stolen Child

Where dips the rocky highland Of Sleuth Wood in the lake, There lies a leafy island Where flapping herons wake The drowsy water rats; There we've hid our faery vats, Full of berrys And of reddest stolen cherries. Come away, O human child!

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“The Song of Wandering Aengus” by W. B. Yeats

Loch Gill seen from nature trail running through Hazelwood Country Park, on the outskirts of Sligo, Ireland, and immortalized by W. B. Yeats in “The Song of Wandering Aengus.”

Wikimedia Commons

"I think a kind of half ballad, half lyric ... is the kind of poem I like best myself—a ballad that gradually lifts ... from circumstantial to purely lyrical writing. ... I only learnt that slowly and used to be content to tell stories . ... One must always have lyric emotion or some revelation of beauty…" —Letter from W.B. Yeats to Dora Sigerson (1899)

Teacher guide “The Song of Wandering Aengus” by W. B. Yeats includes information about the poem and discussion questions. Supplementary documents provide contextual background on Irish traditional sources including Celtic mythology and Irish aisling poetry.

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About the Poem

Questions for discussion, questions for further discussion.

“The Song of Wandering Aengus”

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.

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: 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.

Though I am old with wandering Through hollow lands and hilly lands, I will find out where she has gone, And kiss her lips and take her hands; And walk among long dappled grass, And pluck till time and times are done, The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun.

The Wind Among the Reeds, 1899. 4th ed. (London, 1903), 15–16. Available at Project Gutenberg .

An online version of the poem is also available on EDSITEment-reviewed Academy of American Poets.

William Butler Yeats wrote “The Song of Wandering Aengus” on January 31 sometime in the late 1890s. It was first printed in 1897 under the title "A Mad Song." The current title "The Song of Wandering Aengus" was applied when it was finally published in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899). These early collected poems displayed Yeats's mastery of the lyric form as well as his passion for Celtic mythology and Irish folklore, which were to fuel his poetic genius throughout his career.

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” is deceptively simple, yet it paints a haunting story containing many mythological allusions and nuanced levels of meaning. The speaker is an old man reminiscing about an event long ago when he was compelled to go out to cut a branch for fishing. With it, he caught a magical silver trout, which was then transformed into a vision of a “glimmering” maiden. The life-quest he set himself was to find this girl who called his name before she vanished.

In the poem, Yeats contrasts two realities: the earthly realm of ordinary life and the mystical otherworld of dreams. He wrestles with conflicting desires—the ongoing need to handle the practical things of life and the strong compulsion to follow one’s dreams. To express this conflict, Yeats employs a break in the middle of each stanza signaled by a semicolon or colon. This shift underlines the gap between the earthly, physical world and the mysterious, magical otherworld. It moves the reader from the concrete world of the particular to the abstract world of the universal.

For background on the life and work of the poet, see the EDSITEment-reviewed Poetry Foundation entry on “ W. B. Yeats ” and Stephen Watt's, “The Voice of Nationalism: One Hundred Years of Irish Theatre,” Humanities 20, no.1 (1999).

The seven questions in this worksheet can be adapted for use in a classroom discussion or literature circle and are aligned with Common Core literacy standards for grade 8. In whatever venue, make sure that students provide evidence from the poem in their answers. (See also the teacher version with suggested answers. )

• Question 5 discusses the terms below and their meanings from the EDSITEment literary glossary: assonance ; repetition ; alliteration ; consonance ; and meter .
• Question 7 references another poem about dreams also published in The Wind Among the Reeds , “ Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven .”

Five questions for further discussion are found in the accompanying worksheet . However, before delving deeper into the poem, you will need to read and discuss the information included in Traditional Irish Sources for “The Song of Wandering Aengus” with students. After reading this contextual background, the questions can be raised for discussion and/or used as a basis for writing activities. (See the teacher version with suggested answers ).

Note: Question 5 references the late 20th-century aisling by Seamus Heaney, " A Hazel Stick for Catherine Ann ,” in Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966–1996 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998), 214.

Materials & Media

Wandering aengus: worksheet 1. questions for discussion, wandering aengus: worksheet 2. questions for further discussion, wandering aengus: traditional irish sources for “the song of wandering aengus”, wandering aengus: questions for discussion (teacher version), wandering aengus: questions for further discussion (teacher version), related on edsitement, twenty-one poems for ap literature and composition, twenty-one more poems for ap english, charles baudelaire: poète maudit (the cursed poet), chinua achebe’s things fall apart.

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Fans Think Harry Styles' "Falling" Is About Cheating & I’m Shook

Harry Styles dropped his new album, Fine Line , on Dec. 13, and it includes many emotional lyrics about falling in and out of love. (Classic.) There’s tons to unpack, but one particular theory about Harry Styles cheating on the song "Falling" has fans on Twitter in a tizzy, thanks to a lyric about Styles' "wandering hands." Some fans have guessed the song could possibly be about Styles’ ex-girlfriend, Camille Rowe, the French-American model and Victoria's Secret angel he reportedly dated from summer 2017 to July 2018 , but a request for comment from Styles on that rumor made by Elite Daily was not returned at the time of publish.

The first verse of the song says: “I'm in my bed / And you're not here / And there's no one to blame but the drink and my wandering hands / Forget what I said / It's not what I meant / And I can't take it back, I can't unpack the baggage you left.” These words convey a heartbreaking message, but Styles never makes it clear who exactly the song is about. He also never explicitly mentions infidelity directly. Nevertheless, his breakup with Rowe seems to be top of mind for fans debating on Twitter.

Rowe and Styles were first rumored to be dating in August 2017, after they were spotted together at an event in New York City. A source reportedly told The Sun at the time that Styles seemed “besotted” with Rowe . They were photographed out on another reported date later that month, and he reportedly introduced her to his family around the holidays that year. In January 2018, a source reportedly told The Sun that the couple was still going strong, saying, “Camille’s come along at exactly the right point in Harry’s life. He’s had plenty of fun but seems to be content hanging out with her. They get on great. She’s laid back and cool, plus she’s been really supportive of his career. The relationship is still fairly relaxed, he’s hardly at the stage where they see each other every day." In March 2018, Rowe was reportedly spotted in the audience with Styles’ mother at his Paris concert.

Styles and Rowe reportedly ended things in July 2018. Fans didn’t hear much more about the rumored breakup until August 2019, when Rolling Stone released its cover interview with Styles. Tom Hull, one of Styles’ closest friends, was interviewed for the piece, and provided an insightful take on the reported breakup , saying, “He went through this breakup that had a big impact on him… I turned up on Day One in the studio, and I had these really nice slippers on. His ex-girlfriend that he was really cut up about, she gave them to me as a present — she bought slippers for my whole family. We’re still close friends with her… He looks at me and says, ‘Where’d you get those slippers? They’re nice.’ I had to say, ‘Oh, um, your ex-girlfriend got them for me.’ He said, ‘Whaaaat? How could you wear those?’ He had a whole emotional journey about her, this whole relationship … But I kept saying, 'The best way of dealing with it is to put it in these songs you’re writing.'"

Styles may have done just that. Regardless of whether “Falling” is about Rowe or not, it’s pretty clear that one song on the album features her directly. “Cherry” includes a recorded voicemail message in French that Styles confirmed was from an ex-girlfriend. The song is all about watching a former lover move on with someone new.

Fans won't know for sure whether this theory is true unless Styles decides to speak on it directly, but whatever those lyrics in "Falling" mean, the song conveys a poignant portrait of longing and heartbreak, and it's some of Styles' most moving work yet.

This article was originally published on 12.13.19

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Movie Reviews

'if' only these imaginary friends are sweet, but could have been so much more.

Bob Mondello

Bea (Cailey Fleming) and Blue (voiced by Steve Carell) in IF. Paramount Pictures hide caption

Bea (Cailey Fleming) and Blue (voiced by Steve Carell) in IF.

The third installment in John Krasinski's blockbuster horror franchise A Quiet Place will soon employ noise-triggered monsters to scare audiences shoutless. But the filmmaker is starting the summer with sweeter monsters — the sweetest, really — in IF .

Which doesn't mean they don't cause 12-year-old Bea ( Walking Dead's Cailey Fleming) to faint right away the first time she sees them — though in fairness, she's got a lot on her mind. Having already lost her mom to cancer, she's moving in with her grandma for a bit while her dad's in the hospital awaiting surgery.

Still, when wouldn't encountering a giant plush critter in the apartment upstairs be startling, even if he turns out to be a sweetheart voiced by Steve Carell? It's an imaginary friend (an "IF," in his parlance) of a kid who's long forgotten about him — and who, being colorblind, named him "Blue" even though he's purple.

Also up there is Blossom (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge), a life-size ballerina doll, and the apartment's harried resident, Cal (Ryan Reynolds), the only person besides Bea who seems able to see IFs.

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Actor john krasinski takes stock of his 'lottery-ticket life'.

Bea has been trying to be very grown up for her dad, played by director Krasinski. When she visits him at the hospital, he starts dancing with his I.V. pole and cracking jokes, and she has to tell him to dial things back a bit. As the film goes on, you may be tempted to echo that with regard to his directing, but things are certainly lively as the IFs explain that they've started a matchmaking agency to help fellow imaginary friends find new kids. Bea volunteers to help, and is soon introduced to a whole lot of critters – unicorns, dragons, even a flaming marshmallow — at an IF retirement home in Coney Island.

All of which gives Krasinski an excuse to call in an army of digital animators, first to bring life to imaginary critters voiced by his A-list Hollywood buds, including George Clooney, Awkwafina, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Jon Stewart, Steve Carell, and the late Lou Gossett Jr. in a warmly avuncular turn as a supervising teddy bear. And then to make the walls and floors of the retirement home morph and flip as if they're just so many pixels.

Listen Carefully: The Tense 'Quiet Place' Sequel Speaks To Our Present Time

At which point, if you're like me, you may start wanting something a little more solid to hold onto — like, say, a plot that holds up, or even that just holds still. This one jumps around as much as the IFs themselves, at first linking them to new kids, then to their now-grown-up original kids, with little logic, and less explanation.

Along the way, some intriguing issues are raised — about wanting to return to childhood, about growing out of childhood, and about dealing with loss.

But mostly the filmmakers detour, decorate and digitize their story rather than telling it, and that doesn't mesh well with the real-world stuff — dad's surgery, for instance, and Bea's wandering all over Brooklyn without her grandma seeming to notice. And yes, I know: IF is a kid-flick, but it still needs grounding. We're in Brooklyn, not Willy Wonkaland.

Hidden Brain

Secret friends: tapping into the power of imagination.

Also, star voices and digital wizardry notwithstanding, IF 's IFs feel generic, especially when they're stealing focus from the live performers. Grandma, for instance. No filmmaker who has actress Fiona Shaw on screen needs special effects.

Krasinski, in fact, clearly knows that. He's crafted a lovely moment where Bea puts a ballet record – the "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia" — on the turntable, and Grandma stands listening to it, bathed in twilight at a window, with her back to the camera. She's remembering the dancer she was as a child, and as the music rises, her right hand does too ... just so. And in that lovely, unforced gesture, you realize all the other things Krasinski's sweet little kid flick might have been ... IF only.

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Farewell, Chuck E. Cheese Animatronic Band

A mainstay of the pizza and arcade chain, by turns endearing and creepy, will be phased out by year’s end at all but two locations. We visited one of them.

A Chuck E. Cheese in Hicksville, N.Y., is one of hundreds of that will say goodbye to its animatronic band. Will the Chuck E. Cheese experience be the same? Credit...

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By Jesus Jiménez

Photographs and Video by Jackie Molloy

Reporting from Chuck E. Cheese locations in New York and New Jersey.

• Published May 11, 2024 Updated May 12, 2024

For decades, Munch’s Make Believe Band at Chuck E. Cheese has performed for countless birthdays, end-of-season Little League parties and other celebrations. There’s been Chuck E. Cheese and Helen Henny on vocals, Mr. Munch on keys, Jasper T. Jowls on guitar, and Pasqually on drums.

The band of robot puppets has been a mainstay at the colorful pizzeria-arcade chain where children run amok and play games for prizes in between bites of pizza slices.

Their final curtain call is coming soon.

By the end of 2024, the animatronic performances — endearing and nostalgia-inducing, if perhaps slightly creepy to their audiences — will be phased out at all but two of the chain’s more than 400 locations in the United States: one in Los Angeles and another in Nanuet, N.Y. The departure of the band comes as Chuck E. Cheese undergoes what its chief executive, David McKillips, recently described as its largest and “most aggressive transformation.”

Out: Animatronic bands.

In: More screens, digital dance floors and trampoline gyms.

The coronavirus pandemic forced many Chuck E. Cheese locations to temporarily shutter, and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the summer of 2020. Since then, its leaders have tried to adapt Chuck E. Cheese to a modern era — and children who might be more excited by screens than an old animatronic band with limited movement and shifty eyes.

“Kids are consuming entertainment differently than they were 10, 20 years ago,” Mr. McKillips said sitting in a booth at the Chuck E. Cheese in Hicksville, N.Y., on Long Island. “Kids, really of all ages, are consuming their entertainment on a screen.”

For now, Munch’s Make Believe Band still performs every day at the Hicksville location, which sometimes hosts as many as 20 birthday parties on a weekend day, starting as early at 8 a.m. But by the end of the summer, the band will have played its last show there.

Then the band will be removed and replaced by a Jumbotron-size TV, more seating and a digital dance floor. (Chuck E. Cheese declined to say what will happen to the animatronic figures after they are removed from hundreds of locations across the country.)

‘The band is in perfect condition.’

Not everyone wants more screens, trampolines and new games. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Kendall Maldonado, 12, of Queens, was dancing next to the band dressed in his own Chuck E. Cheese costume, taking in one of the final performances in Hicksville.

“I grew up on tickets and tokens,” said Kendall, a self-described “super fan,” who has visited dozens of Chuck E. Cheese locations across the New York area and one in Puerto Rico.

Kendall’s mother, Jennifer Molina, 43, said she brought Kendall to his first Chuck E. Cheese when he was 3. Like many young children, Kendall was initially slightly scared of Chuck E., but he later warmed up to the giant mouse.

“He’s been a fan ever since,” she said.

Ms. Molina said that Kendall wished the bands could stay.

“The band is in perfect condition,” Kendall said. “Sometimes kids hit them, which is mad disrespectful because they’re just doing their job and performing.”

Since Chuck E. Cheese announced in November that it would phase out Munch’s Make Believe Band, some parents have scrambled to take their children to the final performances.

Kaitlin Rubenstein, 30, the general manager of the Hicksville location and another in Hempstead, N.Y., said that some recorded videos of the band to preserve the memory.

Ms. Rubinstein said it was “bittersweet” to watch the band that had been a part of her childhood being retired.

“To go to Chuck E. Cheese on a Friday night,” she said, “that was a treat.”

At first, he was a coyote.

Chuck E. Cheese was started by Nolan Bushnell, a co-founder of the pioneering video game company Atari. In an interview with the Smithsonian Institution in 2017, Mr. Bushnell said his background in arcade games, which sold for about $1,500 to $2,000 per machine, sparked his desire to open a pizza joint with the games, each of which would collect up to $50,000 in coins in their lifetime.

Mr. Bushnell said he was also inspired by a family trip to Disneyland, and particularly the Tiki Room, an attraction with animatronic birds, tiki gods and flowers.

“We can do that,” Mr. Bushnell recalled thinking at the time. “But it’d be nice to have a mascot.”

At first, the mascot was supposed to be a coyote, and Mr. Bushnell was going to call his new business Coyote Pizza. Mr. Bushnell, who declined to be interviewed, told the Smithsonian that he went out and bought a costume of what he thought was a coyote.

“I took it to my engineers,” Mr. Bushnell said. “I said, ‘Make this guy talk.’”

But a problem arose: The costume Mr. Bushnell bought was not a coyote, but a rat with a tail.

“I’d never seen it below the waist,” he said.

Mr. Bushnell thought about keeping the rat costume, and changing the name of his restaurant and arcade to Rick’s Rat Pizza, but he was persuaded to avoid the optics of having “rat” in the name. Mr. Bushnell decided to name the place Chuck E. Cheese. (Charles Entertainment Cheese, according to the company.)

The first Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre opened on May 17, 1977, in San Jose, Calif. It was conceived as a place “where you could go and eat and play and have family time together,” Mr. McKillips said.

“The animatronics,” he added, “were a band that was playing cover songs and original music.”

The band has had different iterations, but Chuck E. Cheese, Helen Henny, Mr. Munch, Jasper T. Jowls and Pasqually have been mainstays. Some locations have had versions of the band called Studio C, with just Chuck E. playing solo.

The Chuck E. Cheese in the Northridge section of Los Angeles will retain its five-member band, while the location in Nanuet, N.Y., has a Studio C.

Today, Chuck E. Cheese has more than 600 locations in 16 countries , with more to come. The chain’s popularity drifted into pop culture, drawing loose references in video games, films and TV shows, including in an episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” in which the gang visits Risk E. Rat’s Pizza and Amusement Center.

The horror movie “ Five Nights at Freddy’s ,” released last year, follows a night security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza as he battles a vengeful group of animatronic characters. The film was released a few weeks before Chuck E. Cheese announced the end of its animatronic bands, leading many to speculate that the horror movie spurred the company’s decision. The company said at the time that this was not the case.

Screens are ‘where the future is moving.’

For anyone born since about the mid-1970s, visiting a Chuck E. Cheese has felt like part of an American childhood. As the chain modernizes and ushers out its animatronic band, Kristy Linares, 33, the general manager of the Chuck E. Cheese in Paramus, N.J., said not much had changed.

The Paramus location no longer has an animatronic band and was recently renovated with more TVs, a digital dance floor and a trampoline gym, but Ms. Linares, who sometimes takes her children there, said that children still eat pizza and play games as always. “Chuck E. Cheese is still the same,” she said.

Employees said they had seen children shift their attention to screen-based games in recent years. Leana Gil, 17, a birthday party coordinator at the Paramus location, said she had noticed that children “gravitate toward things of their time,” citing a much-loved Paw Patrol game as an example.

Ms. Rubenstein, the general manager in Hempstead, said interactive screen games were a hit.

“That’s where the future is moving,” she said.

In another adaptation for the digital era, the chain is doing away with numbered hand stamps for visitors, which are checked at the exit to stop kids from wandering off or leaving with someone they did not arrive with. Instead, a family selfie will be taken at the entrance and checked at the exit.

On a recent Wednesday, Maricel de los Reyes took her son Sam to the Chuck E. Cheese in Paramus. It was their first visit there since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and the first one without the band.

Did they miss it?

“No, I don’t think that was a big thing for us,” she said, as Sam walked off to play a game. “It was more the games, the food and just hanging out here.”

Jesus Jiménez covers breaking news, online trends and other subjects. He is based in New York City. More about Jesus Jiménez

Jackie Molloy is a freelance photojournalist working in the New York City area. Follow Jackie Molloy on Instagram @jackiemolloyphoto. More about Jackie Molloy

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