The Wild Swans at Coole

Question 1

What is enjambment?

Answer 1

This is when sentences flow nicely.

Question 2

What is caesura?

Answer 2

A stop or pause in a metrical line.

Question 3

What is diction?

Answer 3

Means you break 2 words/ideas apart by a word

Question 4

What is melancholy?

Answer 4

Means bitter sweet. Looking back with a bit of sadness.

Question 5

Nature V Humanity

Answer 5

“Autumn beauty”

“Mirrors a still sky”

“Companionable”

“Attend upon them still”

“Passion and conquest” “Lover” “Hearts”

“Before I had finished my count”

“Some day” “Flown away”

While human generations will die and new ones will be born, nature will remain the same.

He is aware that his life has quickly passed him by, and while nature stays the same, everything else in his life has changed. He compares himself to the swans at the lake because they have not changed at all, and he has changed so much. This makes the readers also aware of their own mortality.

Question 6

Love

Answer 6

“Nine-and-fifty swans”

“Brilliant creatures”

“Unwearied still”

“Lover by lover”

“Paddle in the cold”

“Their hearts have not grown old”

“Wander where they will”

“Attend upon them still”

“Companionable”

“Mysterious, beautiful”

“Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day”

“To find they have flown away”

Question 7

Passing of Time/Ageing

Answer 7

“Autumn beauty”

“Woodland paths are dry”

“October twilight”

“Brimming water”

“Nineteenth autumn has come upon me”

“Scatter wheeling in great broken rings” and “clamorous wings”

“And now my heart is sore”

“All’s changed”

“Twilight” and “Shore”

“Trod with a lighter tread”

“Bell-beat”

He is aware of the way his body had changed since he had first visited the park, and he is aware of the way his life has changed. He has more worries and cares, and probably more aches and pains associated with old age.

Question 8

General Analysis

Answer 8

“Mirrors a still sky”

“Now they drift away”

Question 9

“Autumn beauty”

Answer 9

This shows a change in nature/admiration which gives the idea of a cycle of nature and that it doesn’t change and constantly continues and repeats. This emphasises that nature acts in accordance with nature and that swans do what comes naturally/instinct. This also has a calming effect on the reader.

Signifies coming to the end of a year and a period of change/transition. At this point in time the world was changing as world war had just come to an end and the Easter rising in Ireland had just started. Yeats is also advancing into his middle/later years in life.

Question 10

“Mirrors a still sky”

Answer 10

Use of alliteration in “still sky” reflects the moment of stillness in his life and nature for that time. The line seems to linger on this /s/ sound, evoking the stillness of the Coole surroundings.
He also juxtaposes the stillness of the water and sky to the brisk motion of the birds’ in the following stanza.

Suggests that there is still energy and life left in him. Shows a sense of anticipation/hope. Shows that this is quite a calm and reflective poem which creates a lack of turmoil/acceptance.
This also adds a sense of reflection and melancholy to the poem.

Question 11

“Companionable”

Answer 11

Yeats is personifying the swans here by giving them human emotions and attitude. Suggests that they always have someone and are never alone. This reflects on Yeats as he’s alone and not got anyone.

Question 12

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Answer 12

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Question 13

“Nine-and-fifty swans”

Answer 13

This is significant as this is an odd number meaning that there must be one lonely swan as swans mate for life. This reflects on him and how he is lonely with no love at the age of 52.

Question 14

“Brilliant creatures”

Answer 14

He admires them and finds them beautiful

Question 15

“Unwearied still”

Answer 15

Portrays the theme of ideal/lasting love and tells us that their hearts are always full of love for each other. This suggests envy/longing and admiration.
Yeats can no longer say the same of himself. The poem implies that he has grown weary, and his heart has grown cold.

Question 16

“Lover by lover”

Answer 16

Use of diacope emphasises the theme of eternal/united lovers. This reflects on all that Yeats has lost himself.

Question 17

“Paddle in the cold”

Answer 17

They mate and love each other no matter the circumstances.

The word choice of “cold” gives the poem a bitter tone

Question 18

“Their hearts have not grown old”

Answer 18

They still love and mate even after 19 years. Unlike his, swans hearts don’t grow old. This reflects on his life and how his feelings for Maude Gonne have gone nowhere.

Question 19

“Wander where they will”???

Answer 19

Again, he implies the contrast between the swans and himself. While they have not grown old, he has. The awareness of how much he has changed brings sadness to his heart. The speaker also continues to contrast the swans with himself. He notes that the swans swim in pairs, each having its own companion. The speaker contrasts this with his own lonely heart.???

Question 20

“Attend upon them still”???

Answer 20

Tells us that the swans still have passions and conquest. This gives a sense of how everything’s still the same for them but everything’s changed for him???

Question 21

Linking back to the question

Answer 21

Reinforce
Links
Highlights
Emphasises

Question 22

“Mysterious, beautiful”

Answer 22

This tells us that he admires them and doesn’t fully know/understand what happened in his life.

Question 23

“Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day”

Answer 23

This tells us that happiness is being experienced by other but not him.

Question 24

“To find they have flown away”

Answer 24

Since so much has changed already in Yeats life, the swans are a symbol of stability for they are always there and seem never to change. And yet, Yeats fears that one day they will take off, never to return to the lake at Coole. At that point, everything will change for Yeats.

Question 25

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Answer 25

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Question 26

“Woodland paths are dry”

Answer 26

It is less optimistic and reflects on Yeats own life and how he still doesn’t have love or Maude Gonne. Tells us that his hopes are fading and dying out.

Question 27

“October twilight”

Answer 27

Reflects on the last 19 years that Yeats has gone to see the swans at the park.
This also signifies the transition from day into night and the slowing down of time.

Question 28

“Brimming water”

Answer 28

“Brimming” means nearly overflowing. This means that the water appears to be higher than usual, which seems to contradict those “dry” paths

Question 29

“Nineteenth autumn has come upon me”

Answer 29

He’s reflecting that he’s getting older and that time was quite slow. Now that he’s older he has no youth left in him and is in a completely different phase of life. The use of numbers hints at the length of time and what has happened during this time

Question 30

“Scatter wheeling in great broken rings” and “clamorous wings”

Answer 30

Suggests that he doesn’t impose this vibrancy on himself

Question 31

“And now my heart is sore”

Answer 31

This reflects on his life as he is less optimistic which suggests that something has changed over the years as the swans never used to make his heart sore but now do. This may be because there seems to be such a sharp contrast between the swans and himself. While he is tied down to earth where there are many cares and worries, they are free to fly, worry-free into the sky.

Question 32

“All’s changed”

Answer 32

Shows that the world and Ireland has changed and he’s finally accepting this and the fact that Maude Gonne is gone and doesn’t love him. (He’s still unmarried at 52)
This links back to nature and the continuous cycle of nature

Question 33

“Twilight” and “Shore”

Answer 33

Caesura is used to show that he’s a different man now than he was before.

Question 34

“Trod with a lighter tread”

Answer 34

The sight of the swans brings him back to the days when he “trod with a lighter tread”. Perhaps he is remembering when he was younger and quite literally lighter, or perhaps he is remembering days when he did not live under such heavy burdens and could walk with a spring in his step.
The use of word choice creates vibrancy to it which hints to the youth he has lost and no longer has.

Question 35

“Bell-beat”

Answer 35

Hints to old age and death which links to the them of death.

Question 36

“Now they drift away”

Answer 36

Links back to “still sky”

Question 37

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Answer 37

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Question 38

“lake’s edge or pool”

Answer 38

He admits that they are mysterious and beautiful creatures, and he does not know what they will do. He doesn’t know whether or not they will always be at the lake in Coole, or whether they will find another “lake’s edge or pool”.

Question 39

“before I had well finished”

Answer 39

The swans, of course, didn’t wait for him to finish counting, but just did whatever came instinctively to them.

Question 40

“Passion and conquest” “lover” “hearts”

Answer 40

the sense of distance between the speaker and the swans remains palpable. That is to say, the swans are just going about their lives in accordance with their nature. They don’t seem to doubt themselves or worry about their place in the world—they just inhabit their environment. There’s thus something almost comical—and tragic—about the speaker’s attempt to view nature through the prism of his own feelings.

Question 41

“Some day” “Flown away”

Answer 41

It’s perfectly possible, of course, that—in accordance with their nature—the swans might do this. This heightens the sense of distance between the speaker and the swans, thereby also intensifying this sense of fundamental difference between humanity and nature itself. Furthermore, this makes the speaker’s life seem small and insignificant.

Question 43

Stanza 1

Answer 43

Introduces the setting

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty swans.

Question 44

Stanza 2

Answer 44

Introduces himself and the tone shifts to one of melancholy remembrance.

The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.

Question 45

Stanza 3

Answer 45

Moves back to the present and turns his thoughts inwards.

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.

Question 46

Stanza 4

Answer 46

He projects himself and his emotions onto the swans in this stanza creating a sense of penance/continuing.

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.

Question 47

Stanza 5

Answer 47

Linking to the future and what’s ahead

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?