Trod with a lighter tread. D Trimeter
Unwearied still, lover by lover, A Tetrameter
They paddle in the cold B Trimeter
Companionable streams or climb the air; C Tetrameter
Their hearts have not grown old; B Trimeter
Passion or conquest, wander where they will, D Pentameter
Attend upon them still. D Trimeter
But now they drift on the still water, A Tetrameter
Mysterious, beautiful; B Trimeter
Among what rushes will they build, C Tetrameter
By what lake's edge or pool B Trimeter
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day D Pentameter
To find they have flown away? D Trimeter
WHAT IS THE OCCASION?
The simple narrative of the poem, recounting the poet's trips to the lake at Augusta Gregory's Coole Park residence to count the swans on the water, is given its solemn serenity by the beautiful nature imagery of the early stanzas, the plaintive tone of the poet, and the carefully constructed poetic stanza--the two trimeter lines, which give the poet an opportunity to utter short, heartfelt statements before a long silence ensured by the short line.
WHO IS THE SPEAKER?
An adult caught up in the gentle pain of personal memory who contrasts sharply with the swans, which are treated as symbols of the essential: their hearts have not grown old; they are still attended by passion and conquest.
HOW DO THE PATTERNS WORK TOGETHER?
The poem is written in a very regular stanza form: five six-line stanzas, each written in a roughly iambic meter, with the first and third lines in tetrameter, the second, fourth, and sixth lines in trimeter, and the fifth line in pentameter, so that the pattern of stressed syllables in each stanza is 434353. The rhyme scheme in each stanza is ABCBDD. A profound paradox relating to the swans, which make them "Mysterious" is how they can be so completely engaged in life yet not subject to mortality. The solitary man wistfully watches the paired swans, still passionate, "lover by lover," and wonders why he is alone and feeling his age. The poem does not attempt to resolve that paradox. It remains an enigma, like the "still sky" and the "still water." Their surfaces are smooth and untroubled, with no indication of what might be beneath or beyond them. "Still" though unobtrusive is one of the key words in the poem. The word not only describes the two spiritual elements of tranquil and apparent motionless, but also it appears twice in the penultimate stanza. "Unwearied still...Attend upon them still." Here "still" means "now, as before," referring to a duration of time. The swans are at once both in and out of time which deepens the paradox. A word that is perhaps overlooked because it is only in the title is "Wild." Yeats called the swans wild to indicate that they are not domesticated. They do not nest at Coole. Thus, as the poem's ending suggest, they may fly away at any time. He associated the quality of wildness with the power and freedom of flight. The wild swans at Coole are independent, vigorously active and passionate. The second stanza provides a powerful image of the whole flock of swans taking off in unison: "I saw...," "All suddenly mount," "And scatter wheeling in great broken rings" and "upon their clamorous wings." The verb "mount" has duality, referring to the swans' ascension into the sky, but also provides overtones to another meaning: to copulate. The verb brings together his main associations with wildness: power, freedom and passion.
