The Wild Swans at Coole

“The Wild Swan at Coole” describes an older man’s annual observation of swans. The opening stanza sets a picturesque scene of autumn and upon the peaceful water “are nine-and-fifty swans,”(6). The specificity of the number swans alludes to the author's adoration for them. The swans symbolize something important to him as this has been his “nineteenth autumn,”(7) that he has observed them take flight “upon their clamorous wings,”(12). Nostalgically, the author reminisces the first time he heard the swans take flight who “trod with a lighter tread,”(18) but is saddened that “all’s changed since,”(15). He personifies the swans as lovers whose “hearts have not grown old,”(22) even if they “wander where they will,” (23) as if he envies them.  In the last stanza, the author stills the swans, going from describing them as happy and free-flying to drifting “on the still water,”(25). Even though the swans may settle in “what rushes they build,”(27), his rapture is fleeting only to “find they have flown away,” (30). He feels left behind, unable to fly away with them, forever free.