The Wild Swans at Coole - W.B. Yeats
A Poignant Meditation on Change and Fleeting Beauty
The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty swans.
The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.
I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.
Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold,
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.
But now they drift on the still water
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes, when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?
W.B. Yeats’s “The Wild Swans at Coole” is set against the backdrop of Coole Park in autumn. At its heart, the poem juxtaposes the timeless grace of swans with the speaker’s awareness that his own life has changed over the years. In the first stanza, Yeats evokes an atmosphere of calm with images of autumn foliage, still water, and 59 swans resting on the lake. This scene connects the poet’s present moment to a prior one—he recalls counting the swans in previous years, highlighting the passage of time.
As the poem progresses, the speaker expresses a sense of loss and longing. The swans, unaffected by age or worry, continue to exhibit youthful vigor—“their hearts have not grown old.” In contrast, the speaker feels the weight of personal change, implying he can no longer tread with the same carefree spirit. This discrepancy between human experience and nature’s seeming constancy heightens the poem’s emotional resonance.
Swans often represent love, loyalty, and transcendence. Here, they also symbolize beauty’s impermanence, even though the creatures themselves appear ageless. By the final stanza, the speaker wonders anxiously about the swans’ future departure, acknowledging the inevitability of change. As much as he wishes for constancy, he cannot prevent life from moving forward. “The Wild Swans at Coole” stands as a quiet meditation on how we age, remember, and cherish fleeting moments of natural beauty.
Key points
1. Yeats contrasts the steady grace of the swans with the speaker’s awareness of aging.
2. Autumn’s imagery underscores themes of transience and the passage of time.
3. The poem blends tranquility and introspection, revealing both the beauty and ache of memory.
4. Yeats poses a central tension: nature’s enduring allure versus human susceptibility to change.