Yeats’ “The Wild Swans at Coole”: A Detailed Analysis
The Wild Swans at Coole: Analysis
Voice and Mood
- Voice: The speaker is expressing their thoughts, although it is suspected that the poet is speaking to someone.
- Mood: Melancholy, emotional, resignation because time passes.
Summary
The poet describes an autumnal landscape, focusing on a lake where there are 59 swans. He notes that 19 years have passed since he first counted them. The swans suddenly flew off before he could finish his count. The vision of the swans’ beauty leaves a residue of bitterness. Everything has changed since the first time he saw them. He discovers the swans remain the same, making him feel that he has changed. It is a phenomenon of extreme subjectivism. The theme that affects him (unlike the swans) is himself. Swans still have the future ahead. He stops talking about the future. But now? There is a contrast. The swans are young; it follows that they have time, but now he is thinking, where will they go tomorrow? There is a resigned note to console us. Life is collective: what he cannot make, somebody else will. Karma is a mutable concept continued. Reach beyond the ego that he is: an avatar.
Topic
Tempus Fugit
Parts
- Part A: The first stanza establishes the external framework, describing the autumn landscape, including the swans. The relationship to Tempus Fugit is established in verses 2 and 3.
- Part B: The second, third, and fourth stanzas are the proper Tempus Fugit. The issue starts here; a reflection on the time that has passed. He speaks from the present, and there is ambiguity over time. Melancholy is present.
- Part C: The fifth stanza can be subdivided: the first verses, 25 and 26, are a throwback to the landscape of the first stanza. Then, verses 27 to 30 pose a question that points to the future. Life knows no rest. What will the future bring? Implicit is the question: When he wakes up, when will he die? There is a twofold setting: he will grow old and die tomorrow, and he is enjoying the beauty of the swans. Immortality and immortality by belonging to a species. Even under this reflection, everything has changed; we conclude that the sadness comes from the change. The past impacts the past; the past affects the present and will be highlighted. This is for the swans. He thinks he’s no longer like them. All part of a fake. The swans have not been there for 19 years, while it looks like they have. But if he spends his time. There is an opposition between nature and humans. Only the eternal species matter because the individual does not count. The past and present are interacting.
- Fourth Verse: It focuses on the swans filled with life. They have a future, and, without telling us (but we suspect), he says no. It is in this. Reflection: the purging of a feeling: the fact of aging.
- Fifth Verse: The first two lines return to the beginning when everything is doubtful, changeable with life… Where will they be tomorrow?
The Garret by Ezra Pound
Voice and Tone
The poem is in the second person as he addresses his beloved (“let us”). The tone is forensic and argumentative in the first stanza. After this, the tone takes on a lyrical tinge in the second stanza, where he shows his feelings.
Summary
In the first part, the poet addresses his beloved, comparing the rich to the poor. He invites her to take pity on the rich because they have no friends. The same applies to married people because, in the end, a time will come when the passion is over, and to the unmarried because of the fact of being alone. The second part describes the input from dawn to dawn, and the lyrical tone is expressed by a desire to wake up next to his beloved.
Topic
He contrasts happiness and unhappiness. Passion or happiness is related to the bohemian life (the poor at the time), while the unhappy life flourishes in the richest. The central theme is that friendship and love blossom in a simple life.
Parts of the Poem
It is divided into two parts:
- The first verse runs from 1 to 5, where the poet addresses his beloved, inviting her to take pity on the rich, the married, and the unmarried.
- The second part goes from verse 6 to 11, in which the poet names the Aurora input and shows the desire to wake up next to his beloved.
Comment on the Meter
It is a poem of 11 verses divided into two irregular stanzas. There is no rhyme.
Rhetorical Devices
- “Better off than we are”: Comparison
- “Come, let us pity”: Paradox
- “Come… come” (verses 1 and 2): Anaphora
- Alliteration in Nasal: Verse 2
- Alliteration /t/: Verse 6
- “Have butlers and no friends / have butlers and no frying”: Antithesis
- “Married and the unmarried”: Paradox
- “Than this hour of clear coolness”: Comparison
- Alliteration /d/ and /k/: Line 10