"The Wild Swans at Coole" is a poem by W.B. Yeats, published in a collection of the same name in 1917. Written when Yeats was in his 50s, the poem sees a speaker visiting Coole Park in Ireland (a place which Yeats himself had visited). Here, he observes a large group of swans, comparing the present moment to his first visit to the park 19 years prior. Though the speaker admires the swans, the whole poem is suffused with an atmosphere of melancholy and regret—with the speaker projecting the kind of traits onto the swans that he feels he now lacks. There has been much speculation about the source of the speaker's feelings. The poem itself subtly alludes to lost love, and many critics also point to the timing of the poem's composition—shortly before the end of World War I, during the Irish struggle for independence from the British—as being highly significant.
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The Full Text of “The Wild Swans at Coole”
1The trees are in their autumn beauty,
2The woodland paths are dry,
3Under the October twilight the water
4Mirrors a still sky;
5Upon the brimming water among the stones
6Are nine-and-fifty swans.
7The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
8Since I first made my count;
9I saw, before I had well finished,
10All suddenly mount
11And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
12Upon their clamorous wings.
13I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
14And now my heart is sore.
15All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
16The first time on this shore,
17The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
18Trod with a lighter tread.
19Unwearied still, lover by lover,
20They paddle in the cold
21Companionable streams or climb the air;
22Their hearts have not grown old;
23Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
24Attend upon them still.
25But now they drift on the still water,
26Mysterious, beautiful;
27Among what rushes will they build,
28By what lake's edge or pool
29Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
30To find they have flown away?
The Full Text of “The Wild Swans at Coole”
1The trees are in their autumn beauty,
2The woodland paths are dry,
3Under the October twilight the water
4Mirrors a still sky;
5Upon the brimming water among the stones
6Are nine-and-fifty swans.
7The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
8Since I first made my count;
9I saw, before I had well finished,
10All suddenly mount
11And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
12Upon their clamorous wings.
13I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
14And now my heart is sore.
15All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
16The first time on this shore,
17The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
18Trod with a lighter tread.
19Unwearied still, lover by lover,
20They paddle in the cold
21Companionable streams or climb the air;
22Their hearts have not grown old;
23Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
24Attend upon them still.
25But now they drift on the still water,
26Mysterious, beautiful;
27Among what rushes will they build,
28By what lake's edge or pool
29Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
30To find they have flown away?
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“The Wild Swans at Coole” Summary
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“The Wild Swans at Coole” Themes
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Time and Aging
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Nature vs. Humanity
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Wild Swans at Coole”
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Lines 1-4
The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky; -
Lines 5-8
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; -
Lines 9-12
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings. -
Lines 13-18
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. -
Lines 19-24
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. -
Lines 25-30
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?
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“The Wild Swans at Coole” Symbols
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The Swans
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“The Wild Swans at Coole” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
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Caesura
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Consonance
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Diacope
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Enjambment
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Pathetic Fallacy
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Personification
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Rhetorical Question
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Assonance
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“The Wild Swans at Coole” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Twilight
- Brimming water
- Nine-and-fifty
- Wheeling
- Clamorous
- Bell-beat
- Trod / Tread
- Unwearied
- Companionable
- Attend
- Rushes
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Wild Swans at Coole”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Wild Swans at Coole” Speaker
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“The Wild Swans at Coole” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Wild Swans at Coole”
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More “The Wild Swans at Coole” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Out Loud — A reading of the poem on YouTube.
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Yeats In His Own Voice — A recording of Yeats reading some of his most famous poems.
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Yeats and the Supernatural — A clip discussing Yeats, faeries, and Irish occult tradition.
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Yeats and Irish Politics — A clip from a BBC Radio show that looks at Yeats's relationship to his home country.
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"No Country for Old Men" — This documentary takes an insightful look at Yeats's life and work. Its title—which you may recognize from the Oscar-winning film of the same name—comes from Yeats's poem "Sailing to Byzantium."
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LitCharts on Other Poems by William Butler Yeats
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