The Wild Swans at Coole by W. B. Yeats

Full Text

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 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?

Overview

Yeats returns to Coole Park after nineteen years and counts the same swans, but everything has changed in him. The swans become symbols of unchanging vitality set against human aging and loss.

Line-by-Line Analysis

Lines 1-6

A precise autumn scene: dry paths, still water, twilight. The fifty-nine swans are counted with careful specificity, grounding the poem in observed reality.

Lines 7-14

The speaker marks nineteen autumns since his first visit. His heart is sore — all has changed in him since the days when the swans' wingbeats made him walk with a "lighter tread."

Lines 15-20

The swans remain unwearied, paired as lovers, their passion undiminished. They swim or fly with equal ease — a vitality the speaker no longer shares.

Lines 21-26

The final stanza projects forward with anxious tenderness: someday the swans will be gone, delighting other eyes at some unknown lake, and the speaker will wake to absence.

Themes

• Aging
• Loss
• Nature's permanence
• Memory
• Mortality
• Beauty

Literary Devices

Symbolism

nine-and-fifty swans — The swans represent unchanging passion and beauty, contrasting with the speaker's aging and emotional weariness.

Metaphor

The bell-beat of their wings — The wingbeats are compared to bells — resonant, ceremonial, almost sacred — elevating the swans beyond mere birds.

Contrast

Their hearts have not grown old — Set against the speaker's sore heart, the swans' undimmed passion highlights the human experience of decline.

Rhetorical question

Among what rushes will they build — The closing question conveys uncertainty about the future and the inevitability of separation.

Historical Context

Written during a difficult period for Yeats: Maud Gonne had married another man, the Easter Rising of 1916 had shaken Ireland, and Yeats was over fifty. Coole Park was the estate of Lady Augusta Gregory, his patron and collaborator, where he often stayed and walked the grounds.