SummaryWith the trees in their autumn beauty, the speaker walks down the dry woodland paths to the water, which mirrors the still October twilight of the sky. Upon the water float nine-and-fifty swans. The speaker says that nineteen years hae passed since he first came to the water and counted the swans! that first time, before he had well finished, he saw the swans mount up into the sky and scatter, whelling in great broken rings " Upon their clamorous wings. The speaker says that his heart is sore, for after nineteen autumns of watching and being cheered by the swans, he finds that eerything in his life has changed. The swans, though, are still unwearied, and they paddle by in the water or fly by in the air in pairs, loer by loer. Their hearts, the speaker says, hae not grown cold, and whereer they go they are attended by passion or con#uest. $ut now, as they drift oer the still water, they are %ysterious, beautiful, and the speaker wonders where they will build their nests, and by what lake&s edge or pool they will delight men&s eyes, when he awakes one morning to find that they hae flown away.FormThe Wild 'wans at (oole is written in a ery regular stan)a form* fie si+-line stan)as, each written in a roughly iambic meter, with the first and third lines in tetrameter, the second, fourth, and si+th lines in trimeter, and the fifth line in pentameter, so that the pattern of stressed syllables in each stan)a is ,-,-.-. The rhyme scheme in each stan)a is /$($00.CommentaryOne of the most unusual features of 1eats&s poetic career is the fact that the poet came into his greatest powers only as he neared old age! whereas many poets fade after the first burst of youth, 1eats continued to grow more confident and more innoatie with his writing until almost the day he died. Though he was a famous and successful writer in his youth, his poetic reputation today is founded almost solely on poems written after he was fifty. 2e is thus the great poet of old age, writing honestly and with astonishing force about the pain of time&s passage and feeling that the ageless heart was fastened to a dying animal, as he wrote in 'ailing to $y)antium. The great struggle that enliens many of 1eats&s best poems is the struggle to uphold the integrity of the soul, and to presere the mind&s connection to the deep heart&s core, despite physical decay and the pain of memory.The Wild 'wans at (oole, part of the 3434 collection of the same name, is one of 1eats&s earliest and most moing testaments to the heart-ache of liing in a time when all&s changed. 5/nd when 1eats says /ll&s changed, changed utterly in the fifteen years since he first saw the swans, he means it6the 7irst World War and the 8rish ciil war both occurred during these years.9 The simple narratie of the poem, recounting the poet&s trips to the lake at /ugusta :regory&s (oole ;ark residence to count the swans on the water, is gien its solemn serenity by the beautiful nature imagery of the early stan)as, the plaintie tone of the poet, and the carefully constructed poetic stan)a6the two trimeter lines, which gie the poet an opportunity to utter short, heartfelt statements before a long silence ensured by the short line 5Their hearts hae not grown old...9. The speaker, caught up in the gentle pain of personal memory, contrasts sharply with the swans, which are treated as symbols of the essential* their hearts hae not grown old! they are still attended by passion and con#uest.William $utler 1eats& poem, The Wild 'wans at (oole depicts an eening stroll by a lake filled with swans. The speaker is familiar with the swans, as he has been coming to the lake for 34 years. 2e is fascinated by them and reminisces on earlier trips he has taken to the lake. Throughout the poem, 1eats deelops a tone of awe for the swans, as well as melancholy for the past.The speaker in the poem is clearly fascinated by the swans. 2e admires the beautiful animals, referring to them as brilliant creatures 51eats 3-9. The speaker een seems to be 9. 2e knows that the swans bring happiness to whoeer&s life they touch, and he wishes that they would always be in his. The swans seem to be the sole source of beauty and