The Wild Swans at Coole

Question 1

1 stanza: imagery of serenity and calm

Answer 1

autumn beauty, twilight, still sky, brimming

Question 2

nine

Answer 2

nine-and-fifty swans

Question 3

Mirrors

Answer 3

Mirrors a still sky

Looking back on past

Question 4

2nd stanza: imagery of chaos and lack of control

Answer 4

before I had well finished, suddenly mount, scatter wheeling, clamorous

Question 5

Since I had

Answer 5

Since I had first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished

He wants to find control by making a count, but fails to obtain that control

Question 6

And now my heart

Answer 6

And now my heart is sore.

Vulnerability, longing - suffering through his love life.

Question 7

bell-beat of

Answer 7

bell-beat of their wings above my head

Majestic/sacred - physically and metaphorically elevated

Question 8

Implied contrast between Yeats and the Swan

Answer 8

Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will

Question 9

Passion or

Answer 9

Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.

Freedom links to youth
Resentment almost?

Question 10

Delight men’s eyes

Answer 10

Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?

Rhetorical question - melancholic
Sense of loss

Question 11

Precis

Answer 11

A lyric poem in five sestets, it contrasts the poet’s aging and emotional weariness with the timeless beauty and vitality of the swans he observes at Coole Park.