The Wild Swans At Coole Analysis

876 Words4 Pages

William Butler Yeats, a successful Irish poet who received the Noble prize for literature in 1923. ‘The Wilde Swans at Coole’ is a name of a poem he wrote also the name of a whole book of poems. Yeats was enthralled to write the poem ‘The Wilde Swans at Coole’ after observing 59 wild swans on a still lake that mirrors the sky at Coole Park, which was an estate owned by Lady Augusta Gregory in Ireland. The poem has five stanzas, and the rhyme scheme is a-b-c-b-d-d in every stanza. There is a mixture of iambic pentameter, iambic trimeter and iambic tetrameter in the poem. The stanzas are modified ballad stanzas plus a rhymed couplet which is well-suited for the poem’s reflective tone and melancholy mood. Also, it can be said that this poem is a lyric because of its musical tone and its direct emphasis on the writer’s personal feelings but at the same time written autobiographically. ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’ not only transports us to a placid lake but to a very personal place in our hearts where we regret lost time. In this poem Yeats shows us his concern of change, infinity of beauty and freedom.
Firstly, he illustrates his concern of change ‘Autumn’,’October’ and ‘Twilight’ shows us that everything must come to an end involuntarily and the passing of time is inevitable. The opening stanza shows its sadness and melancholy due to its ballad construction which illustrates perfectly the nostalgic mood. Yeats, used symbolism in the form of a gyre to show the gradual change from

Open Document