The Wild Swans at Coole by William Butler Yeats

In this poem, The Wild Swans at Coole, Yeats explores the theme of the frailty of human life
through his speaker. This particular speaker becomes keenly aware of his own ageing as he
watches the same swans that he has watched year after year. While the swans seem to
change not at all, the speaker admits he has changed in every way. He has grown old, and
everything in his life has changed, and he fears that one day the swans will leave him, too.
Yeat’s is able to convey a feeling of deep sadness by using the feelings of his speaker
in juxtaposition to the beauty of the Lake and the swans. He explores the idea of aging by
using a speaker who has been to this same place for nineteen years.
In The Wild Swans at Coole, Yeats brings his readers to feel the passing of time through his
speaker’s description of the lake and his feelings as he counts the swans and watches them
take flight. He has the unique ability to cause his readers to connect with nature while
simultaneously becoming aware of their own mortality. Although the speaker never overtly
says it, the reader becomes aware that the lake and the beautiful nature around the speaker
will be there for years after the speaker’s passing. It all makes life seem so short, fragile,
and yet beautiful.

The Wild Swans at Coole Analysis

Stanza 1
The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water 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 Wild Swans at Coole opens up with the description of a beautiful woodland in the
autumn. One can imagine the gorgeous colors of the leaves before they fall, and see the
twilight reflecting off the water, where there are fifty nine swans swimming. It is
interesting that the speaker has been focused on the swans enough to count all fifty nine of
them. He is clearly intently studying them. The way the speaker describes the beauty has a
calming affect on the readers. This place, called Coole, is a place to be quiet and serene. The
scenery itself demands it. Readers can picture themselves there, in this beautiful place,
watching the swans.
Stanza 2
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.

With this stanza of The Wild Swans at Coole, the tone shifts to one of melancholy
remembrance. The speaker says that it has been nineteen years since his first visit to Coole,
when he first counted the swans on the lake. It is not clear whether the speaker is saying
that he has been coming to that place for nineteen years, or whether it has been nineteen
years since he started keeping track of his time there, or whether it has been nineteen
years since he started counted the swans. Whatever the case, the speaker makes it clear
that he has been to this place every fall for many years. Before the speaker even finishes
counting these swans, they take off suddenly. He describes their departure as one of
“wheeling in great broken rings”. They appear “clamorous” to him as they take off in a
flutter.

Stanza 3
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.

Here, the speaker turns his thoughts inward. After watching the “brilliant creatures” he
admits that his “heart is sore”. The reason for his aching heart is that everything has
changed so much since he first watched those swans take flight nineteen years earlier. It
appears in The Wild Swans at Coole that when he first saw the swans, they did not make his
heart sore. Something has changed over the years so that the sight of these swans now
brings sadness to his heart. Perhaps it because there seems to be such a sharp contrast
between the swans and himself. While he is tied down to earth where there are many cares
and worries, they are free to fly, worry-free into the sky. The sight of the swans brings him
back to the days when he “trod with a lighter tread”. Perhaps he is remembering when he
was younger and quite literally lighter, or perhaps he is remembering days when he did not
live under such heavy burdens and could walk with a spring in his step. Whatever days he
is remembering, he reveals that “all’s changed since” those days.
Stanza 4
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.

In this stanza of The Wild Swans at Coole, the speaker contrasts the swans with himself. He
has changed so much, and the swans have not changed at all. They are “unwearied still” and
still paddle next to the very same lover. He says that “their hearts have not grown old”.
Neither has their passion faded. They are still free to “wander where they will.” Again, he
implies the contrast between the swans and himself. While they have not grown old, he has.
The awareness of how much he has changed brings sadness to his heart. The speaker also
continues to contrast the swans with himself. He notes that the swans swim in pairs, each
having its own companion. The speaker contrasts this with his own lonely heart.

Stanza 5

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?

In this stanza of The Wild Swans at Coole, the speaker seems to be afraid that someday,
they will simply leave him and everything will have changed. He admits that they are
mysterious and beautiful creatures, and he does not know what they will do. He doesn’t
know whether or not they will always be at the lake in Coole, or whether they will find
another “lake’s edge or pool”. He doesn’t know which men’s eye’s they will delight someday
when he wakes up “to find they have flown away”. Since so much has changed already in
the speaker’s life, the swans are a symbol of stability for they are always there and seem
never to change. And yet, the speaker has a fear that one day they will take off, never to
return to the lake at Coole. At that point, everything will change for the speaker.

It seems the swans are the one thing he can depend on as being the same year after year,
and so he fears that one day they will leave him. He fears this change because he has
already endured so much change, and the swans have been the one stable, unchanging
thing in his life. Even though the swans have been there at least nineteen years, the speaker
still seems to fear that they will leave. Earlier, he said that all had changed except for the
swans at Coole. Perhaps he believes that they, too, will leave him, just as everything else in
his life has changed. The speaker has clearly becoming acutely aware of his own mortality.
He is aware of the way his body had changed since he had first visited the park, and he is
aware of the way his life has changed. He has more worries and cares, and probably more
aches and pains associated with old age. In short, he is aware that his life has quickly
passed him by, and while nature stays the same, everything else in his life has changed. He
compares himself to the swans at the lake because they have not changed at all, and he has
changed so much. This makes the readers also aware of their own mortality.