The Wild Swans at Coole (analysis essay)

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The Wild Swans at Coole

The Wild Swans, written by William Yeats is a poem about how the swans inhabit Coole park. However, this is just a metaphor for what the poem is actually about, the poem really touches on something much deeper – lost time and unaquired love. The poem is written in a melancholy tone which is suggestive of how he is feeling towards life and especially his love. On a more personal level, the poem reflects Yeats’ unanswered love for Maud Gonne.

Yeats sets a still and weathered scene in the first stanza. The word autumn in the first line symbolizes something coming to an end, and this is further emphasized by the time of day, “under the October twilight the water/ Mirrors a still sky.” This lack of movement reminds the reader of death and emptiness. In the last line Yeats mentions the subjects of the poem, “nine-and-fifty swans”, which is an odd number. This is significant because he later refers to the swans as couples in the third stanza, “Unwearied still, lover by lover,” meaning that one swan must be alone, missing a companion. This might be Yeats’ way of including himself and his rejection in the poem.

In the following stanza, Yeats expresses a sense of sudden surprise in his life through, “The nineteenth autumn has come upon me…. I saw, before I had well finished.” The final two lines of the second stanza may be references to the sudden violence and destruction of the First World War, “And scatter wheeling in great broken rings/ Upon their clamorous wings.” The suddenness of the birds’ noisy flight suggests that something, or perhaps someone, scares them away. In Yeats’ own life, this may have been similar to Maud Gonne backing away from his love proclamations. Further more, the second stanza makes use of consonance to ease the flow of the words by repeatedly using ‘o’ sounds, such as ‘come’, ‘count’, ‘mount’, ‘broken’, and ‘upon’. This repeated use, in conjunction with the hardness of the words gives a harsh tone to the second stanza fringed by the sadness of his broken heart.

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Yeats is contemplating the imminent changes that take place from year to year in the third stanza. The reminiscence of how things used to be saddens him, “I have looked upon those brilliant creatures, / And now my heart is sore.” He realizes that not only he, but also the swans have grown older and heavier, “The first time on this shore, / The bell-beat of their wings above my head, / Trod with a lighter tread,” or perhaps the swans are the same, but his mind is heavier and older, ultimately altering his perception. The use of the word ...

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