First Experience with Literature

My first expeience with literature was when I was seven. Tired of the various picture and easy to read books, I wanted something new. So my dad started reading me one of W.B. Yeats' poems, "The Song of the Wandering Aengus". He read it to me every night, and to this day, I can recite it perfectly. This poem, this beautiful, exotic poem, opened a whole new door for me. It showed me that literature was more than peter rabbit and frog and toad. It was illuminating, and wonderful, and kindeled my love of poetry, a passion that remains strong even today.
THE SONG OF WANDERING AENGUS

by: W.B. Yeats

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 some one 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.