a short summary on the wild swans at coole
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Answer:
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.
Answer:
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 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 Wild Swans at Coole” Summary
The trees are filled with fall colors, and the paths through the woods are dry. It's an October evening and the Coole lake reflects the calm, motionless sky above. I can see fifty-nine swans swimming in the lake, which is almost overflowing with water.
It was nineteen years ago that I was first here and counted the swans. Back then, before I could count them all, the birds suddenly flew up above me in huge broken circles, soaring around on their noisy wing
Looking at these beautiful birds now, I feel heartache. Everything has changed since I first stood on the shore of the lake at twilight and heard the swans' wings beating like bells above my head. Back then, I used to walk with a lighter step.
The swans are still just as full of life as they were back then. In their loving pairs, they paddle through the cold, friendly water or soar into the sky. Their hearts remain young. Their lives are still filled with passionate desires, with the freedom to go wherever they want.
At this moment, though, the swans float on the calm surface of the lake, distant and beautiful. In the future, where will they build their nests? Where will other men have the pleasure of seeing the swans, when I wake up one day to find that they've flown away from Coole?
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