Discuss how Yeats explores the theme of change and permanence in “The Wild Swans at Coole.”

Discuss how Yeats explores the theme of change and permanence in “The Wild Swans at Coole.”

In “The Wild Swans at Coole,” W.B. Yeats beautifully contrasts the change in human life with the permanence of nature and beauty. The poem reflects Yeats’s deep feelings about the passage of time, aging, and the unchanging beauty of the natural world, symbolized by the swans.

At the beginning of the poem, Yeats describes the calm and quiet beauty of Coole Park in autumn. The poet observes fifty-nine swans floating peacefully on the still water. These swans represent constancy and timelessness. They seem unchanged even after nineteen years. In contrast, Yeats himself has grown older and weary. He says, “The nineteenth autumn has come upon me / Since I first made my count,” expressing the passage of time and the changes in his own life.

The poet remembers his first visit when the swans suddenly took flight, their “clamorous wings” full of life and passion. That same energy still remains in them, but Yeats can no longer share it. He feels that his own youth and joy have faded, while the swans remain unwearied and full of vitality. This difference makes him sad and reflective.

The swans, moving “lover by lover,” symbolize eternal love, youth, and freedom—qualities that remain constant in nature, while human life changes with age and experience. The poet realizes that though everything around him—his emotions, hopes, and body—has changed, the swans have retained their beauty and spirit.

In the final stanza, Yeats admires the swans’ mystery and beauty but also fears their future absence:

“Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day

To find they have flown away?”

This line expresses both the fear of loss and the awareness of life’s impermanence. It shows that while nature continues in its eternal cycle, human life is temporary and ever-changing.

Thus, Yeats explores the theme of change and permanence through his contrast between the aging, sorrowful self and the unchanging, ever-vigorous swans. The poem becomes a meditation on time, aging, and the desire for something eternal in a world where everything else fades.