Transcript The Wild Swans at

‘The Wild Swans at Coole’
W.B. Yeats
‘The Wild Swans at Coole’
• This poem is set in Coole Park,
Co Galway, a place Yeats
visited frequently throughout
his life. He is wandering
through the grounds of the
park when he sees a flock of
swans floating on a lake. The
sight of the swans reminds
Yeats of his first visit to the
park nineteen years earlier. All
of a sudden, he feels very old.
He thinks about how much his
life has changed in the
nineteen years since he first
visited the park and saw the
swans.
‘The Wild Swans at Coole’
STANZA 1
STANZA 2
• Autumn- near death
• Water and sky calm- no
reminiscing
• 59 swans- odd man out
• 19th autumn- swans
appear eternal, living in
past
• Well finished- death
• Scatter wheeling in
great broken ringslife/memories flash
before him
‘The Wild Swans at Coole’
STANZA 3
STANZA 4
• “I have looked…sore”can’t relive memories,
frustrating
• “All’s changed…tread”memories lift his spirits
• “Unwearied…air”- swans
are coupled, seem
unchanged, can’t find
love
• “Their hearts have not
grown old”- youthful
• “Passion…still”- swans
seem passionate, vibrant
(memories still fresh)
‘The Wild Swans at Coole’
STANZA 5
• But now they drift on still
water”- comes to grips that
memories gone
• “Mysterious, beautiful”admires memories so much
(that’s why difficult to let go)
• “By….away?”- doesn't want to
lose memories, know where
they’ll be
THEMES
• GROWING OLDER
• THE BEAUTY &
MYSTERY OF
NATURE
• In this poem, Yeats is preoccupied with growing
older. He is struck by the fact that nineteen years of
his life have rushed by since he saw the first swans.
He is no longer as youthful and carefree as he used • The poet describes
the peaceful, still
to be. He is weighed down by the cares of middle
atmosphere of Coole
age and no longer walks on the ‘lighter tread’ of
Park, with its trees
youth. The setting of the poem in autumn is
and tranquil lakes. He
significant, as the poet is in the ‘autumn’ stage of
also praises the
his life.
majestic and
• In the nineteen years he has grown older while they
inspirational beauty of
seem not to have changed at all. They are
the swans. He regards
‘unwearied’, whereas he has grown old and tired.
the swans as graceful
The swans’ hearts ‘have not grown cold’ and are
and elegant. But he
still filled with ‘passion’. As a middle-aged man,
also considers them
Yeats feels passion and adventure are no longer a
powerful and strong
big part of his life. They will soon leave his life
as they suddenly take
completely, just as the swans will fly away from the
to the air.
lake at Coole.
FIRST READ:
1. Describe the park that the poet walks
through.
2. What did the poet see when he was in the
park nineteen years ago?
3. Why does the poet feel sad now?
4. How does he describe the swans in the
fourth stanza?
5. How is he different to the swans?
A CLOSER READING:
1. What is the poet’s attitude to growing older?
2. Why does he admire the swans so much?
3. Why does he think that the swans are
‘mysterious’?