The Wild Swans at Coole Flashcards
It’s autumn
The trees are in their autumn beauty
Yeats describe the reflection in the water
Under the October twilight the water mirrors a still sky
Yeats counts the swans
nine-and-fifty swans
It’s the 19th autumn since he first coutned the swans
The nineteenth autumn has come upon me since I first made my count;
The swans scatter with their loud wings
scatter wheeling in great broken rings upon their clamorous wings
It hurts Yeats to look at them
I have looked upon those brilliant creatures, and now my heart is sore
Everything has changed
All’s changed
Their wings are powerful and noisy and the swans are still carefree
bell-beat of their wings above my head, trod with a lighter tread
The swans are still carefree and have lovers
Unwearied still, lover by lover
They have companionship
Companionable streams
Their hearts are still young
Their hearts have not grown old
They still have passion and adventure
Passion or conquest, wander where they will, attend upon them still
They are mysterious and beautiful
Mysterious, beautiful;
They have flown away one day to entertain someone else. (Perhaps yeats is worring about his creativity leaving him?)
Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day to find they have flown away?
themes
ageing death permanence and change creativity loss of creativity nature
